Ether Net
by sakurademonalchemist
Summary: Ether is the brother of Lan Hikari. When the brothers are offered a place at Hogwarts, only Ether accepts. There he makes friends he never dreamed of, and has to avoid his surprisingly large fan base which includes a bushy haired brunette...
1. Chapter 1

Lan Hikari is an ordinary boy. He had friends, a family and the coolest dad.

His older brother, however, was quite different. Ether Net Hikari was by far from ordinary.

Lan was normal. He had slightly above average grades, friends who cared and was an avid fan of roller blades. Ether was not. He had the highest grades in the school and was rumored to take high school classes while he was still only an elementary student. His closest friends were some of the strongest net battlers around. And he was an avid fan of music and flying.

Ether had a special skill that he rarely had to hide. It drove the people at SciLab up the wall. He could hack into any network or mainframe simply by breaking apart the code. He often used a slender metal rod to act as a conductor while he tore apart the strongest barrier in the net.

And that was without using his Net Navi Fukurou.

Fukurou was the strong, silent type. He matched his operator perfectly. Like Ether, he had the strange skill of breaking apart code like it was nothing. He could slip into the tiniest crack in computer code and vanish into the net without a trace.

That was probably why Ether had designed his Navi to look like a ninja.

Ether had black hair that reached his neck and was tied in a simple ponytail. His green eyes shone brightly behind specs of his own design. They helped him to see the code that lay in plain sight all around him. He was roughly five feet and still growing. He preferred darker colors like blue, purple and deep red. And he often wore skates on his shoes. (They could be taken off and put on with ease.)

Fukurou wore a ninja outfit in deep blue and night black. The only thing that could be seen of his face were his eyes, which were a startling amethyst. His jet black hair was cut short, and would go all over the place if he hadn't put it under a strange headband with a blank plate. His footwear was simple, yet made for speed.

When he struck, he threw shuriken to do minimal damage and kunai for maximum. If he was close enough to an enemy virus he would use a tachi to take them it. It was remarkably similar to Protoman's Wide Sword.

* * *

><p>Ether headed out to school and then to SciLab. Since they had realized that Ether could break in whenever he wanted, they had decided to employ him to write barrier walls for them. It prevented the alarms from going off every five minutes.<p>

As it was, Fukurou had been given special clearance into every system, since even if he didn't he would break in anyway.

(They had quickly learned that Ether was a dog on a bone when he wanted to know something. So they saved themselves the headache by simply telling him their project and asking him to not break in.)

Ether thought it would be an ordinary day. Well, ordinary for him at any rate. He went to school and was about to head to SciLab when he noticed the bird. It was an owl, and it was so out of place that he stared at it.

He tapped his brother on the shoulder and pointed to it.

"Lan, am I seeing things or is there a barn owl on that branch?"

Lan paused. He was going to hang out with Dex and Yai after school. He looked at the tree and saw that his brother was right. (Ether had a hobby of bird watching. He had a thing for owls.)

As they watched, wondering why it was awake at that hour, they saw a second owl join this first. This one was a horned owl.

"Okay, now that is just weird. Those two species should not be in close proximity to each other...especially since both of them are male," said Ether, confused.

* * *

><p>For the next two weeks Ether and Lan spotted ten different species of owl. And they all had two things in common. One, they were all carrying a letter. And two, they were not native to the area.<p>

After the third week, Ether had enough. He had kept his window closed when he realized how out of character the owls were acting (had seen the movie _The Birds _and it left an impression on his young mind) but now he threw it wide open.

The owls swooped into his room. All of them bearing the same letter.

It was made of old fashioned parchment paper, and it bore a very elaborate crest. A snake, a raven, a badger and a lion all surrounded a very archaic looking **'H'.** Instead of opening it, he decided to show them to his parents.

"Mom, dad...those owls that were haunting me dropped these."

The Hikari family sweat-dropped at the sheer number of letters, all bearing the same crest. What really bothered them was that every letter had Ether and Lan's names on them, and where they slept.

"Hogwarts?" read Lan.

They weren't about to open a mysterious letter that had their names on them. It could be a bomb for all they knew. And it didn't help that Ether's specs kept beeping whenever one came close to him.

(Ether's specs were designed to detect foreign code **AKA** anything that didn't fit into acceptable parameters. It had saved them more than a few times from a nasty letter bomb sent by criminals who made the mistake of using his code to protect their information.)

"Should we call Chaud?" asked Lan.

"Last time he came for a letter bomb he brought an entire bomb squad and ten bomb sniffing dogs. Have you forgotten the mess those guys left?" Ether reminded his brother dryly.

Lan winced. He had to call his friends to help clean up the yard. Those dogs had left nasty surprises for them in the yard. Yai had refused to come.

"You have any alternatives?" asked their father.

Ether pulled out his special PeT (**_Pe_**rsonal **_T_**erminal) and said "Fukurou."

A bizarre and elaborate circle sprang up from beneath Ether's feet. None of them reacted, since they saw it often enough. Ether was going to summon his Net Navi to the material plane. Something SciLab had been trying to duplicate with absolutely no success. (It annoyed Chaud that he couldn't explain _how_ Ether could do it.)

"Day Dreamer Summon!"

Zeros and ones circled in front of him, and his Net Navi materialized.

"_What's the problem this time?"_ he said calmly. (Materialized, Fukurou was at least a good seven inches taller than his operator. It used to annoy Ether something fierce.)

Ether handed him one of the letters. It had Lan's name on it.

Fukurou waited until they had taken cover to open it.

"_Dear Mr. Hikari,_

_You have been accepted to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry..."_

They all stared.

"Seriously? Don't they know we've been taking magic lessons since we were seven?" asked Ether.

Lan and Ether had an odd power inside them that used to mess up their computers. It had driven their father up the wall until he took them in to have it analyzed. Once they had the energy pinned down, SciLab designed a program for their PeT's that would allow the thing to run off that energy.

After that they had no more problems. Occasionally someone would come in and complain that their PeT wouldn't run properly and they would have to add the program.

So in an attempt to lower the number of complaints from magic users (as Ether discovered they were called) he set up a rather ingenious way of identifying them. He placed a special code into the PeT display in stores that only those who had enough magic to cause problems would see.

Mages would see the code and ask for the program to be installed in the store.

The number of complaints dropped...though it had lead to an interesting conversation with the local Magical Government. Ever since then they had used the code to find young Mages and alert them to their potential.

(It had lead to a boost in the school attendance. Especially when the school had decided to add arenas for the students to battle using their Net Navis, provided they did their homework. If they didn't they were locked out of the system.)

Fukurou opened the others, though half of them he pinned to the wall with a shuriken. Apparently someone had planted hidden port keys to them when opened.

Once they had seen what the letters said, the boys wrote back to the mystery person and had one of the owls deliver it.

* * *

><p>McGonagall looked up from her tea to see an owl fly in. It was one of the owls sent to the two boys in Japan.<p>

"_Dear Professor,_

_While we appreciate the offer, next time would you please send someone instead of flooding the town with owls? Also, could you send someone to describe the courses available? _

_Sincerely, Ether Hikari."_

_Odd_, she thought.

So she alerted Dumbledore as to where she was going and prepared to meet the two muggleborn brothers.

* * *

><p>Two days after the owls quit showing up, a woman appeared at their door. It must have been pure coincidence that she happened to show up before they went to schoolwork.

Right?

Ether let the woman in carefully. His sub PET was on his wrist. Today was one of the rare days when someone was stupid enough to attack SciLab directly. Chaud had given him a secondary PET for Fukurou so the viruses hackers sometime sent wouldn't infiltrate his usual one.

He mostly did it so the classified data Ether hid on his PET wouldn't be compromised.

Ether had felt the sentiments behind the gift. It was one of the many reasons he considered the rather frosty boy his friend.

"May we help you Ma'am?" asked Lan.

"May I speak to Lan and Ether Hikari?"

She came in and sat down at the table with them. They asked intelligent questions, and to her relief she didn't have to explain that yes, magic was real.

"What sort of wireless does this school have?"

McGonagall looked very confused. When Ether elaborated on what he meant, it cleared up.

"Muggle, that is nonmagical, items do not work at Hogwarts. Especially when they are run by electricity. From what the normal born tell, there is too much magic in the air for them to function properly."

Ether and Lan looked dismayed. No tech?

"Now hold on boys. We have made several advances in integrating technology with magic. We could use this as a test run," suggested their father.

Ether took that as the challenge it was. He then asked McGonagall what courses were eligible for students. And was very unhappy to learn that they offered so few.

Their parents gave them a choice. And both decided on something different.

Lan would stay with their parents and take the same courses as before. Ether took the challenge Hogwarts presented, provided he was allowed to take summer courses and have access to the SciLab satellites.

Chaud was not happy about the decision. While it would open Ether's horizons when it came to magic, it also limited his ability to help them with the various problems that came with working with high profile cases.

Still, he did come to a compromise that would allow him full access to the satellites (and the internet). He would take all their prototype PETs that were labeled for magical use, and test them in a magic only environment. This would determine if they were ready for distribution.

Ether had upped the deal by getting certain classes sent directly to his E-mail. If he could get Fukurou to work in Hogwarts, then he could continue his normal education even while he was away.

It was something his parents readily agreed to. After all, he only went to school with his brother for appearance sake.

* * *

><p>Ether went with McGonagall a week after she arrived. He had to get school supplies after all. And he had taken care of his affairs. All his friends (all of them were far older than he was, except Chaud) knew he would be gone for most of the year.<p>

They were all fine with it, and wished him luck.

Ether went into the bank, and prepared to deal with the monetary system. He was naturally good with numbers. It came with his job.

The goblin in the booth scowled, and placed a sign right before they went up. Another goblin came in from the back and took his place.

"Next!"

"New account?" asked the goblin.

Ether noted that the armband on the goblin glowed. The goblin noticed it as well.

"Yes, the boy needs to have an account opened," said McGonagall.

The goblin looked at Ether carefully before saying, "Our records show there is a previous account. I'm afraid you will have to wait here while we sort this out."

He was looking at McGonagall when he said this. Her eyes were a bit surprised, but she didn't argue. Ether went into the back through the door.

* * *

><p>Once he was in the office his eyes widened in appreciation. The goblin had good taste in weaponry. (He should know. His room was decorated in Japanese weaponry and he had pictures of medieval ones on his walls.)<p>

The goblin nodded in approval. When Ether examined a mace, he said "12th century England, I presume?"

"You know your history."

"I know my weapons. I have a few 15th century katanas, properly sharpened, back home. Never know when an old weapon needs to be called back into service," said Ether.

The goblin looked at him with respect. Ether sat down.

"We have been expecting you for some time. Of course we didn't think you would appear in Japan off all places."

"I was adopted when my parents found me on a doorstep in early November. They couldn't believe someone was idiotic enough to leave an infant alone with a thin sheet to keep it warm."

The goblin nodded.

"We were alerted to your name change as soon as the paperwork reached us. By which name do you wish to go by?"

"Hikari. I have no desire to know of my parents until I am certain it won't come back to bite me," said Ether.

"Very well. Mr. Hikari, allow me to take you to your trust vault."

"I almost forgot to ask...but what is your name?"

The goblin seemed very pleased by the request.

"I am known as Griphook," he replied.

* * *

><p>The ride would have been disorienting for someone who wasn't used to extremely high speeds. Much to the horror of his mother, Ether loved to skydive. On the rare occasions he could afford it (or when Chaud was in a really, really generous mood) he would take Fukurou with him and jump.<p>

The wind had always pulled at him. And his father had given up trying to persuade him to try something else. To that end, he had given him special goggles made to his prescription for his tenth birthday.

So when he rode the cart, he stood up and whooped.

Once they reached the vault, he realized Griphook was grinning at him. He grinned back.

"I love high speeds."

Griphook cackled and opened the vault. Inside were piles of gold, silver and copper.

"29 knuts to a sickle, 17 sickles to a galleon."

"Let me guess. Knuts are copper, sickles are silver, and galleons are gold?"

Griphook nodded. Ether took his bag and swept a large amount of the gold and silver coins into it. He could always get copper coins when he bought his supplies.

"Is there anyway to withdraw from the account in the normal world?"

"There is a card that muggleborns use. They have learned to deposit muggle cash into their usual account and have it converted through our subsidiaries."

Ether looked interested.

"How is this done?"

"Our mundane contacts alert us to the amount, and we convert that into galleons or sickles here. It usually takes two to three days for the conversion."

As they boarded the cart, Ether asked "Wouldn't it be easier to convert using computers? The amount would come directly to you and it would take up less time."

Griphook shook his head.

"Unfortunately magic disrupts the power supply. And it tends to block wireless signals."

Ether grinned.

"What would you say if I could help you set up a computer based system that _ran_ on magic?"

Griphook looked intrigued.

"The goblins would accept you as one of our own, and possibly share the profits."

"Let me work on the calculations. I can come up with a working prototype before next year, hopefully."

Griphook grinned at him. And they made short time coming back up.

* * *

><p>It took little time to get the supplies. Ether spent a bit of time in the Arithimancy section of the bookstore, and bought some extras. He spent more time in the Managerie, but found nothing to his liking. Until she took him to the owl Emporium. He fell in love.<p>

Owls of all shapes and sizes perched, waiting to be sold. And Ether adored owls. He was the resident owl otaku back home. As he wandered around the store, he spotted a white owl that he had only heard about.

It was a gorgeous snowy owl, with only a few gray specks on it's feathers.

"How much for this one?"

The assistant gave her a look, and scowled.

"Two galleons. She's a real handful."

He knew how to handle owls. Once, his father took him to a place where they treated owls that were hurt. He learned how to handle them.

He held out his hand, and let her make the first move. She gave him a speculative look, and did a slow walk onto his hand.

He handed over the gold coins without question.

"Do you have any special items for serious handlers?" he asked.

It turned out that they did sell items for true enthusiasts. He bought half their stock and went with McGonagall for his final item.

When he learned that he needed a wand, he shook his head.

"I already have one. They have us learn how to cast without them for our fourth year."

And so he found a place to stay until term started.

* * *

><p>People came and went. Some of them were a little obvious that they were looking for someone in particular. So he tested the prototypes around low magic areas.<p>

They worked fine, aside from a few minor glitches. He took out his tool kit and had Fukurou look around for bugs. If it wasn't a programming error, he would take out his screwdriver and open it up.

He had become quite a mechanic while working at SciLab. He had to be, since sometimes there wasn't anyone around to help him fix his PET when he started working.

Now he could put one of the older models together in his sleep. Literally.

He was almost done when he realized someone was staring at him.


	2. Chapter 2

Hermione Granger was what many would call a clever girl. Others would call her too smart for her own good. Not many adults appreciated her inquisitiveness. Other children her age especially didn't like her, because sometimes she was a bossy know-it-all. Usually because she _did_ know it all.

So when she went to the Leaky Cauldron to get her magic supplies (and her excitement over a subject she had no knowledge of was great) she was very surprised to see someone doing something relatively normal.

And that the person was roughly her age, wearing goggles. He had long black hair and his forehead was covered with the specs. His ears were pierced, not that it was obvious. They were covered with some black material that extended to his face.

Bright green eyes stared back at her.

"Sorry. Got caught up in repairing a minor error. Can I help you?"

"I didn't mean to stare," protested Hermione. She was intrigued over his tools. They looked very specialized...and expensive.

"It's alright. I needed a break anyway. My name is Ether. What's yours?"

"Hermione. Have I seen you somewhere before?"

Ether winced. He was fairly popular around girls, despite his attitude. Where Chaud was cool to everyone, Ether was very polite but firm about his intentions.

And it didn't help that he was a famous net battler. Somehow, some way his picture always ended up on the net for his fan club.

Her eyes widened in realization.

"Are you by any chance Ether Hikari, son of the famous Dr. Hikari?"

He nodded.

She held back a squeal of joy. She had always been fascinated by Dr. Hikari's work on combining human DNA and net navi programing. There had been a picture of him with his sons a few years back.

Ether watched her warily. There was never any telling what a fangirl would do.

"I love your father's work!"

He relaxed. She wasn't a net navi fangirl like he feared. She was a science otaku. He could work with those. They tended to be very intelligent and scientifically oriented. Or at least knew what he was saying half the time.

It wasn't long before Hermione had finished shopping and asked her parents to let Ether come stay at their house until the term started.

They were more than happy to let him stay, because he was the first friend Hermione had made that was her own age. And the only person in her age group that could keep up with her.

* * *

><p>Ether and Hermione made a formidable team. She turned out to be more sensible than he expected. Once she got over the fact that yes, he was <em>the<em> Ether Hikari, they got along perfectly. She had been ecstatic when he asked to see her net navi. It was a basic program for females. None of the ones she had seen in the store had been to her liking at all.

He looked at it and figured he could help her out. She turned out to be a well of untapped ideas. And he had helped his father program Fukurou.

He had Hermione pick details that she liked (hair, face, eye color...) and helped configure her PET to run better in magical areas.

Hermione had a difficult time finding a suitable name for her new net navi.

It was a female, with long crimson hair and blue eyes. Her outfit was stylish and easy to move in. Her main attack was a sword that could emit blue flames. The sword could be changed depending on Hermione's mood. Her arsenal including a Japanese Katana, an Scottish broadsword, an English long sword and an Arabic saber. He even added a bayonet for fun. She would probably find it the next time she reorganized her battlechip folder. (He loved to leave little surprises for people he liked.)

She looked irritated that she couldn't find a good name.

"What are the kind of things do you like the most?"

"Books. Science. Magic. Intelligent conversations. Mythology. Astrophysics."

"Hmm. Which language do you prefer? Japanese, English, Latin, German, Bulgarian..."

"Latin?" she raised an eyebrow.

"I get bored and learn a language. You have no idea how many times people come to SciLab from a country and no one knows what they're saying but me."

"How many do you know?" she asked, curious.

"Twenty...not including three lost dialects and two dead languages."

"Latin _is_ a dead language," she pointed out.

"Not dead, per se, as disused. English is a bastard form of Latin after all."

She conceded his point. After all, most of the spells they would be using were in Latin.

"Latin then."

He ran by a series of words. And mentioned offhand that his own Net Navi was named "Owl."

She raised an eyebrow at that when he said "I like owls."

Eventually they narrowed the names down to two. Magica and Stella.

"We could always use both," suggested Ether, when they couldn't come up with anything either of them liked.

"What would you suggest?"

"Stella Magica. Star Magic."

She gave him a look.

"I can easily add stars to her attacks or as accessories."

"Can you do both?"

He grinned.

* * *

><p>By morning Stella Magica was ready to activate. She was roughly the size of Glide, Yai's net navi. Her hair was held up by a headband made of stars. And her long distance attack was a star shower.<p>

By morning her program would be ready to go. Ether quite enjoyed being with the Granger family. All of them were quite intelligent and accepted him as one of their own. Ether felt at home there.

Stella Magica slowly woke up. Her master, Hermione Granger, was still asleep. Her creator was wide awake making adjustments in the spare guest room.

Once the sun filled the room, Hermione woke up. And her eyes immediately zoned in on her new, improved PET.

"_Morning Miss Hermione."_

She held back a squeal of delight.

"Good morning Stella!"

Ether knocked on the door. Hermione opened it.

"Morning Hermione. How's Stella working out?"

"Stella, can you do a system scan? Check for anything that doesn't belong?"

Stella disappeared into the PET. Five minutes later, she reappeared.

"_Systems all green, Miss Hermione."_

Hermione gave Ether a look.

"She should stop with the Miss within a few weeks, give or take. It took Fukurou a month before he quite calling me master," said Ether.

They went down to breakfast and prepared for their ride into London. They would have to hurry to King's Cross.

Hermione went first. Ether followed her calmly. The place was chaos. Owls, cats, and children. Ether winced. He hated noise, unless it was music.

The two boarded the train, and managed to get their trunks up on the rack. Then Hermione waved to her parents. Ether wished he had that luxury.

His mother and father couldn't join him. His dad was too busy to come, and his mother couldn't speak English very well. Besides, someone had to watch Lan.

Since they had nothing to do while they waited, Ether brought out Fukurou.

"Shall we test Stella's battle capabilities?"

"No wireless signal here, remember? Magic blocks it out."

Ether grinned.

"Every model comes with a jack for battling through the PET virtual world. It's designed so you can battle with or without wires. Besides, the newer ones only have that as an extra."

"I don't have a cord. No one wanted to battle with me before. I _do_ have the basic net battling package that comes with every PET..." she said sadly.

Ether pulled out a medium sized case that was waterproof. (It was also bullet proof, but he wasn't going to tell _her_ that.) Inside it was a ton of battle chips. Most of them were uncommon or semi rare.

(All his really rare or specialized chips were either in his folder or inside another case. They were also rigged with viruses in case someone stole them that didn't have the correct passcode.)

Hermione had fun updating her folder. Since Ether really didn't care whether she kept the chips or not, she took her time. When the train started moving, she had managed to make a decent battle chip folder with tips from Ether.

It wasn't long before she learned her own style of battling. She liked up close and personal attacks. Her star shower wasn't really that effective until she learned to aim properly.

Fukurou took it all in stride. While they chatted on the different ways to battle, Fukurou and Stella discussed the various viruses on the net.

It was a rather pleasant way to kill time.

* * *

><p>The door opened off and on for the past thirty minutes. It was rather irritating. And it didn't help that Ether was a semi-celebrity, at least among the muggleborn students.<p>

Fortunately he had a way of deflecting that attention.

He offered to battle them for autographs. Most students had forgotten their PETs at home, or were told they weren't allowed to bring them.

They were very surprised to find out that not only were they _allowed_ to bring their PETs, but that the company who made them was planning on bringing a magically run version that was compatible with the new systems.

Within the first five visits he had a lot of people willing to test them when they came out.

Considering the ratio of half bloods and muggleborns to pure bloods was five to one, he had plenty of product testers on hand. That was always a good thing, considering there weren't nearly that many places where the magic was so densely concentrated a watch wouldn't work.

It was a good relationship. Ether promised to let them know when the new PETs were ready to be field tested.

Finally the only people who came in to bug him were a pair of red-haired twins. Ether somehow knew they would get along great.

"I'm Fred," said the left hand one.

"I'm George," said the one on the right.

"And we hear there's someone who can get people willing to test things for him," they finished in unison.

"What's the product and what do you need?" Ether said, cutting to the chase. It wasn't too hard to figure out what they were after.

"We make and test pranks," started Fred.

"Nothing too flashy, things like minor fireworks, potions," said George.

"But our consumer base is relatively low. We need to expand," said Fred.

"Let me see some of your products, and I'll see what I can do," said Ether.

The two flashed him twin grins and left. Ether sighed.

"I hate crowds."

"I prefer libraries myself," said Hermione.

"So about your homepage..."

The door came open, and an cranky blond came in.

"I've been hearing up and done the train that Harry Potter has come to Hogwarts."

Ether flashed him an irritated look.

"No one by the name of Harry is in this compartment. There is someone named _Hermione,_ but I'm afraid you have to look elsewhere."

The boy flashed him an annoyed look, and left.

"What does this Harry look like anyway?"

Hermione turned into her informant mode.

"Harry James Potter, son of Lily and James Potter. Only known survivor of the Killing Curse at age one. Current whereabouts unknown. He's also known as the Boy-who-lived. His most distinguishing characteristic is a lighting scar on his forehead. His birthday is July 31st."

"Weird. Same day as mine. So the reason he's famous is surviving a curse? That's not very..."

"It's not just the curse. He survived an attack from the Dark Lord. He-who-must-be-named was rather famous until Harry Potter took him down."

"So let me get this straight. A _baby_ manages to take down an evil magic user, and everyone hails him as a hero. Then someone was stupid enough to paint a target on the boy by telling everyone something distinctive like an unusual scar? Doesn't that seem a _little_ odd to you?"

Hermione's mouth opened and closed, and then she realized he had a point. It _did_ seem odd. Especially since He-who-must-not-be-named had a LOT of followers who were probably angry at the kid.

So when another boy came in looking for Harry Potter, Ether was very annoyed.

"There _is_ no Harry Potter in here! Only Hermione and I are in here!" he growled. Then he looked at the boy and asked "Are you by any chance related to those two twins?"

The boy winced, and fled.

Fifteen minutes later, a nervous boy came in.

"Has anyone seen a toad?"

Ether looked up from his book.

"You lost your toad? What's it's name?"

"Trevor."

Ether walked outside and took his wand.

"_Accio Trevor the Toad!"_

Something big and green colored flew by his head. He grabbed it before it flew off. It was slimy.

"Is this your toad?" asked Ether.

The boy's face lit up.

"Trevor!"

"You want to sit with us?"

The boy nodded. He was a very nervous kid. Someone Ether took pains to help.

"My n-n-name is Neville. Neville Longbottom."

"Hermione Granger," said Hermione, holding out her hand.

"Ether Hikari."

Seeing no recognition in his eyes at the name, Ether knew Neville had to be a pure blood at least.

"So Neville, what do you know about Personal Terminals?" asked Ether calmly.

"What?"

Ether showed Neville Fukurou and his PET. The boy seemed very interested in it.

So Ether lent him a prototype to play with. It had the basic magical program that allowed it to work with mages. And a generic net navi. No special functions, no battlechip folder.

Neville was fascinated with it. Ether's mood improved as he showed Neville how to work the PET. It was a rather outdated model, but it would work.

* * *

><p>Neville put the PET in his pocket. They exited the compartment calmly and went to the one calling for the first years.<p>

He was enormous.

"I think that's Hagrid," whispered Neville.

"Hagrid?" asked Ether.

"Keeper of the grounds. He also patrols the Forbidden Forest."

"Good to know," said Ether.

They boarded the boats and glided across the lake. It was a rather nice place to look at. The castle looked over a scenic backdrop in the mountains. The lake was pretty enough, but a quick dip of his hand proved it was almost below freezing in temperature.

Ether was moderately impressed with the interior. Though he had a bad feeling that it was going to get very cold come winter.

McGonagall read out the usual rules and introduction. Ether felt he had to comment when she left.

"So they let the second years come in and let the firsties freeze their bums off in the main hall? That sounds...fair," said Ether.

Hermione and Neville snickered. Twenty minutes later she returned. And lead the first years into the hall.

Ether whistled when he saw the ceiling.

"I want to know the spell that did that. Could be an interesting addition to my room."

Hermione took the implied challenge. Her answering grin was all he needed to see.

"I hope I make Gryffindor," whispered Neville.

"Why there? From what I hear it's full of jocks and the like. I heard Hufflepuff was good though," said Ether.

Neville looked at him with hope.

"Either way, you're always welcome to join our study group Nev," said Ether. He liked the timid boy.

Neville gave him a small smile. Ether was not only nice to him, he was also kind.

McGonagall started to call the names. Hermione went up first.

"Granger, Hermione!"

The hat sat on her head for a minute before yelling "Ravenclaw!"

"Hikari, Ether Net!"

Ether groaned. He had hoped she wouldn't call his _full _name.

It took the hat ten minutes to yell "Ravenclaw!"

Ether sat next to Hermione. She was trying not to laugh.

"Ether Net?" she giggled.

He groaned.

"Don't. I had enough of that during grade school. Lan gets the same bad jokes too."

"Your parents seriously named you Ether Net? As in an ether net cable? And Lan? Like local area network?"

"Our dad is a computer geek. We used to have a brother named Hub," said Ether with the patience of someone who has heard the same joke too many times.

Neville went up, and the hat yelled "Hufflepuff!"

He was so nervous he almost took the hat with him! Ether was the only one who didn't laugh at Neville.

Soon they were eating the food. Ether was the only person who didn't yelp when the ghosts started appearing. He got back at Hermione though. He started making jokes about ghosts...and she punched him, hard.

He was still grinning though.

* * *

><p>Ether was delighted to find out that the password was a math question.<p>

He was very, very good at math.

Once they got the rules out of the way, Ether grabbed the first bed he liked. And went to sleep immediately.


	3. Chapter 3

Fukurou stalked the halls. Ether wanted a complete overview of the castle, down to the last spec of dust. Luckily, Fukurou was no more than a digital ghost, so walls weren't an issue.

Apparently his unique nature also made wards a non-issue.

(This is probably why Peeves was willing to leave the Ravenclaws alone, provided Fukurou dropped whatever magical menace he had on hand inside the anti-poltergeist wards for him.)

It was because of his mission that he found a large three headed dog on the third floor. And promptly went past every trap, including the rather annoying fire ward. (Fukurou barely felt the flames.)

Fukurou stared. Inside the rather drab room was a mirror. Much to his amusement, he could see a vague reflection of himself in it. He always wondered what he looked like.

Wondering what a random mirror was doing sitting alone, he watched with surprise as his reflection pulled out a red stone and placed it inside his shuriken pouch. (Technically they appeared out of thin air, but Ether added it for appearance's sake.)

What really startled him was that he _felt_ the thing that now rested in his pocket.

Very disturbed, he flew out of the room.

After that rather shocking experience, he encountered no more surprises.

Fukurou left the stone with his partner. Ether could find out what the hell it was and get rid of it.

Ether, upon finding his best friend upset, wondered what the rather boring rock did to deserve the Navi's ire. He would figure out what it actually was two weeks later by accident.

* * *

><p>Hermione found the rather quiet Ether to be her only friend in the school. Fortunately, Ether made up for that unhappy fact with one simple trick.<p>

He was planning on digitizing the _entire_ Hogwarts library, down to the exclusive Ravenclaw one that first years had to earn the right to.

As it was, the minute the upperclassmen learned of his intended project, he found himself with an _army_ of volunteers for later.

Ether had already dubbed the improved library _Raven's Gate._ He was already planning an entire society for mages he called _Nevermore._ Needless to say the muggleborns who caught the Poe reference found it amusing.

There was really only _one_ tiny hitch to his plans.

The internet refused to make it through the wards at a speed he liked. Ether found it highly frustrating that the net refused to go faster than the slowest speed of that through a telephone line* instead of proper cables.

Not that he allowed his grades to drop below 'E' level.

* * *

><p>It was their first flying lesson, and Ether was for lack of a better word...giddy.<p>

(His enthusiasm had several of his fans/friends do a double take and wonder if the Prodigy had been switched with a pod person.)

Ether only half listened to Madam Hooch and to the shock of the teacher _(who had noted with annoyance that the boy wasn't actually paying attention, despite his success at getting the broom up on the first try)_ had his hands at the perfect position for a proper take off.

Her shock only grew worse when Ether, already far too excited, took off too early by accident. He shot off like a bullet!

Everyone expected him to experience a nasty fall. (Particularly Hooch, who thought it would serve the boy right for not paying attention.)

Instead he demonstrates a textbook loop-d-loop before landing neatly on the ground.

The looks on everyone's faces made him choke back a laugh. The detention he got for his reckless stunt didn't.

* * *

><p>"Ether! I can't believe you did that! What if you had fallen off?" said Hermione, upset.<p>

"Then at worst I would have broken a wrist. Honestly 'Mione, this isn't my first time falling from the sky."

The Prefect who happened to be passing at the moment, sputtered in shock. Fortunately she also happened to be a muggleborn.

"I told you before that I love skydiving. And I highly doubt that I would break my collarbone twice."

"How long were you out?" asked the Prefect.

"Four long and boring days with only homework to occupy my time. Since it wasn't really _my_ fault the wind picked my chute up before I could react, I wasn't grounded."

The Prefect winced in sympathy.

Ether spent his detention with Madam Hooch, and managed to mend the bridge he unwittingly burned by cheerfully debating broom models with her. When she learned of his rather dangerous hobby, she actually grew to like him.

(He promised to teach her how to use the parachute properly in exchange for letting him continue the flying lessons.)

* * *

><p>Ether scowled. The night before he had finally found another method to deal with the pesky internet problem.<p>

And now his notes on the subject had been stolen.

Ether rarely, if ever, misplaced something. Especially research notes on something interesting. And his Navi had always been able to locate anything he spent hours on. The longer he spent time on it, the easier it was to find later.

And now they were gone.

The Prefect (a half blood by the name of Roger Davis) informed him curtly that no one had entered the Ravenclaw dorm without authorization.

So Ether decided to ask the suit of armor instead.

And learned that a Gryffindor had entered the Ravenclaw Tower not three hours earlier. The only reason Ether knew this was important was because no _active_ Ravenclaw had opened the door for them. And Flitwick never gave any other house permission to enter.

"'Mione, which house did you say Dumbledore was in?"

Hermione noted the irritation in his voice, but answered anyway.

"Gryffindor. Why?"

"Just confirming something."

* * *

><p>Ether sent a short note to Chaud, and waited for the package. Much to the dread of his magical teachers, Ether was very good at making some rather disturbing magical constructs...which he always used if someone pushed him too far by mocking his name.<p>

Along with his package was a note.

_'Should I be worried and if so do you require any form of back-up?'_

Ether grinned and sent a reply. Two weeks later he received the prototypes that Sci-Lab had developed if he got the PETs working.

(It had taken a week to do so, and they were now being beta tested by half the school. The Terror Twins had been delighted that Ether gave most of their products a vote of confidence after double checking them. A few had to be redone.)

The large modems were carefully hidden by the Ravenclaws, after Ether informed them of Dumbledore's thieving ways.

At least Flitwick could honestly claim that he had no knowledge of the items. Only a Ravenclaw could access the special library in their dorm. As a former Gryffindor, Dumbledore wasn't allowed in, headmaster or no.

Ether finally put the finishing touches on the algorithm he promised the goblins. All he needed was for his army of beta testers to work out the kinks. Upon learning what it was, the muggleborns were more than happy to try it out.

It turned out that he had made a few errors which were quickly corrected.

He would help set up the first model at Gringotts by Christmas.

The goblins were very eager to test it out. If it worked then it would make the bank run more efficiently. As the saying went 'Time is money'.

* * *

><p>Ether felt like snarling. Dumbledore had once again stolen all of his notes on the problem he had with the net. To make matters worse there was nothing he could do to stop the man.<p>

Well, almost nothing.

"Ether, what did you do?" said Hermione.

He had just received a summons to see the Headmaster.

Ether smirked.

"I laid a trap for the thief. I guess Dumbledore didn't like it."

"What...did...you...do?" she asked again.

"Hexed all of my notes so the thief wouldn't get away with it twice. Depending on what the person did, various hexes would go off."

Ether pretended he didn't get the summons just to see exactly what the old man did with the notes.

Apparently he was foolish enough to burn them.

Everyone in the great hall stared at the bizarre tattoo on Dumbledore's face. The Ancient Runes students quickly translated the letters...and several were startled to learn that the tattoo meant 'Thief' in ancient Greek.

Even more were shocked to learn _why_ he had that tattoo.

Which lead to several uncomfortable questions as to why the man felt the need to steal the notes in the first place.

* * *

><p>Ether was fed up with Dumbledore's nonsense. Once again his notes were stolen and burned. (This time the tattoo was in Norse runes).<p>

At least he had the backup notes. He was very close to installing the magical equivalent of a broadband connection.

Once the teachers learned exactly _what _he had been up to, they agreed it was harmless enough to install. It also had the added benefit of giving those with ties to the normal world a way to continue their outside education.

Though the Raven's weren't surprised in the least to find out that Ether was beginning his first semester of college.

* * *

><p>"Did I hear you right? The net will be open after Christmas?" said Mandy.<p>

Mandy and Hermione had done insane amounts of work into the project. If it hadn't been for Ether's unique background, the muggleborn and half bloods would still be in the dark about the outside world.

As it was, Neville turned out to be a boon as he convinced the pure bloods that it was worth their time to check it out.

Which lead to a massive spike in owl ordered PETs. The muggleborn and half bloods were more than happy to assist their pure blood counterparts.

Ether had no illusions. He knew that once the Raven's Gate opened, and Nevermore became available, the unspoken class and house system would begin to fall apart.

It was time England came out of the Dark ages.

* * *

><p>Ether barely tolerated Halloween...though the students all loved his prank on Snape.<p>

Surprisingly, Snape actually made a beautiful woman...to the female teacher's ire.

Draco found that bit to be hilarious. Especially when the picture was sent to his father.

Narcissa had assumed Lucius was cheating on her with another woman (who was clearly better looking than her). All hell would have broken loose in the Malfoy household...if Ether hadn't sent a note explaining _who_ the woman was.

(Once Ether soothed over the problem, more pure bloods soon joined in on the Nevermore world.)

But the events that happened after the first Quidditch match soon changed the fight between Dumbledore and Ether.

Ether watched the game with mild boredom. He would rather fly on a broom than watch.

Suddenly, both bludgers came barreling into the Ravenclaw stands. The students scrambled out of the way...all but Ether.

"_Day Dreamer Summon!"_

The errant balls were blocked by a large summoning circle...and were taken out by two four pointed throwing stars.

When the smoke cleared, a figure was seen.

The muggleborn and half bloods who worked with Ether to create Nevermore were stunned to see Fukurou in all his glory...with midnight black wings.

He was actually flying.

"Ether! Are you okay?" Hermione cried.

"Fine, though that was way too close. If I hadn't brought Fukurou out sooner..."

"Daijobu, Ether?"

"Hnn...Daijobu, Fukurou."

"Then I shall return to my place."

Black feathers rained down as Fukurou returned to the PET. Everyone stared.

"Ether...what...how?" stammered Hermione.

"I can summon Fukurou. I don't know why or how, but I am not complaining."

Much to his horror, it seemed everyone with a hint of magic _and_ a PET wanted to learn how to summon them. While it wouldn't hurt the eventual reaction to the magic-run computers in pure-blood society, Ether knew that teaching them before the students were ready would only lead to disaster!

So he firmly told them that he wouldn't teach anyone until the pure-bloods in the school managed to catch up to the muggleborns in regards to tech.

The students were willing to accept that excuse when Ether introduced the most basic of all Net viruses into Nevermore for people to practice with.

Pure-bloods were having great difficulty with their net battling skills, while those who had their own sent from home simply brushed up on their skills.

* * *

><p>Ether had an unpleasant surprise when Draco Malfoy came to him complaining about his net navi acting up.<p>

Two seconds after looking at which one he had told Ether all he needed to know.

"How the hell did you get Shademan as your navi?" he asked in disbelief.

"That's his name?"

"It's no wonder he won't listen to you. Shademan is a pain in the arse rogue Navi that only shows up to destroy the order of the net. I have never heard of him becoming a human's Net Navi."

"Is there anything you can do?" asked Draco, already sensing a headache coming.

"Aside from getting you a new PET and making you a Navi?"

Draco looked confused.

"Can you just delete him?"

Ether pinched the bridge of his nose.

"My brother and I _have_ tried to delete him repeatedly, but like all things, once it's on the net it's almost impossible to completely get rid of. And frankly he's not that much of a nuisance to make me hunt down his core data."

Draco didn't even try to understand what Ether was talking about.

"So what can I do?"

Ether had an inspiration.

"Does Snape have a PET yet?"

"No."

"Tell you what. Hang on to that one until I get the parts to make a brand new one just for you. I'll even through in some rare battlechips and your own Net Navi that you'll help me customize. Once it's done you can give your old one to Snape. If _anyone_ can deal with Shademan as his Navi, it would probably be him."

Draco snickered.

"And the fact that he happens to be a vampire Navi...?"

Ether plastered an innocent look that didn't fool Draco for a minute.

"Why it's pure coincidence Professor!"

Draco cracked up. He liked Ether, despite his odd background. The fact he was willing to help _him_ without once being condescending meant Draco was willing to be the boy's friend.

* * *

><p>Snape was not as amused by his new toy as the boys were. On one hand, now he wouldn't have to buy one himself to monitor the newly dubbed <em>Chamber of Secrets<em> that Ether had installed.

(The closed server had become bogged down by the sheer amount of students joining Nevermore. Ether realized he had no choice but to install four new servers. One for each house and one for the professors.)

On the other hand, finding out that his new PET had a rather irritating _vampire_ Navi annoyed him.

He had no idea where those blasted rumors about him being a vampire kept springing up, but this certainly wasn't going to help.

His colleagues however, found that fact to be highly amusing.

At least he didn't experience the same issues Draco had with the pest. They had come to an arrangement.

Shademan would listen to his commands with only a few complaints, and Snape wouldn't drop the blasted machine in a potion.

Apparently Shademan recognized that Snape was _not_ a man to be crossed lightly. If anything having the irate potionsmaster as his operator was having a positive effect on the evil Navi.

* * *

><p>Dumbledore was not a happy man. From the Japanese boy somehow managing to ruin decades of his plans to keep their world safely in the dark, to that odd creature on the pitch.<p>

And he knew exactly who was to blame. The boy was far to intelligent for his own good. Alas, after his second attempt to keep the boy from integrating magic with muggle technology, the boy revealed himself to be as cunning as a Slytherin.

He had all the traits of the four houses, and was doing what many believed impossible since the school began it's first days filled with children.

He was slowly but surely uniting all four houses with a common goal. And in the process he was closing the gap between the classes.

What was infuriating was that the boy was doing all of this unintentionally! If only he could mold the child like he wanted to with the Potter heir!

But no, that brat had been missing since Petunia failed to find him on her doorstep.

Dumbledore ate another potion laced lemon drop, trying to figure out how to salvage an already trying year. Something had to be done about the boy, that much was obvious.

* * *

><p>Ether felt like howling with rage. Someone (he totally suspected the senile old geezer) had managed to tamper with the magical field inside the PETs! Now half weren't working, and the other half kept glitching!<p>

His eyebrow twitched uncontrollably. Hermione, who happened to see this, did the only sane thing and warned the school not to cross him until he vented out enough to be safe around.

Alas, Headmaster Dumbledore did _not _receive this warning.

Ten minutes of stewing in a rage, and Ether had the fortune of running into the Headmaster...who showed incredibly horrid luck as he choose that time to attempt Legilmency in a bid to learn the boy's weaknesses.

The headache from what should have been an almost-impossible-to-detect use of magic was the only tipping point needed to push Ether over the edge.

This entire incident happened three whole days before Christmas hols. Dumbledore would be out of commission for the next week from his concussion.

* * *

><p>*<strong>I have had experience with this type of internet, and it is <em>EXTREMELY SLOW<em>. You could make a sandwich and a eat it, and the page would _still _be loading!**


	4. Chapter 4

Ether hummed as he put in the next cord. They had finally come up with a working prototype for the goblins, one that ran on magic. Most of the important electrical work was lined with iron, since it tended to block or at least hamper magical interference.

He was almost done with the wiring. The power supply was like a modified lightning rod, only instead of lightning it was magic that it captured and redirected.

He had to calibrate the computer to handle the strain of all the magic in the air without it overloading. Fortunately he had learned how after installing the servers in Hogwarts, where the magic was two times as strong as Diagon.

When he plugged in the magic rod, the computer started to hum as it started up. It was a slightly outdated model, but it still worked and it had wireless.

A digitized goblin appeared, wearing full armor and standing in front of a gate that led to a massive maze and a rather odd castle. When asked later, Ether admitted he had watched the movie _Labyrinth _one too many times.

He was surprised to learn that Jared was actually real and so was the labyrinth. In fact he had helped the people make the movie, with a few modifications. He couldn't have people who had seen the movie think they could come in and escape like Sarah did.

"_Welcome to the Labyrinth."_

Griphook, the goblin who helped Ether set up the computer, uploaded his navi that Ether had created for him. He would most likely be making Navis all Christmas based on all the goblins from the lowest ranked to the Goblin who ran the entire bank. They all had armor of some sort. Fortunately they didn't mind if he used digitized armor on their goblin navis.

"_Welcome, Keeper Griphook. May your gold always flow and your enemies fall before you. What business do you have with the Guardians of Gold?"_

Ether added Fukurou.

"_Welcome Navi Fukurou. What business do you have with the Guardians of Gold?"_

"Guardian, we need you to perform a full system scan and practice run between Gringotts Server and Outside Accounts," said Ether.

"_Very well. I need an account number to work with."_

"Fukurou, give the Guardian the dummy account that I use whenever I take payments from people who use my programs for illegal activities."

"_Understood."_

Fukurou reached into his pouch and handed the Guardian a piece of data.

"_Standby. Will commence with system scan and transfer. Amount of gold to be transferred?"_

"Let's go with one hundred galleons worth converted to pounds."

"_Very well. Please wait while scan is underway."_

Two hours later, the Guardian made a bell-like sound, and then transferred a hundred galleons worth of gold converted into pounds to the account Fukurou had handed him. Fukurou accessed the account and waited a moment. Five minutes later Ether was alerted to the fact someone had just deposited a large number of pounds into his dummy account.

Because of his work with the police around the world and the fact he was known to work for Sci Lab, the account wasn't flagged. Besides he had told Chaud that he was going to be using it today for a test run.

Ether wrote down the amount and then handed the paper to Griphook.

"Is this amount correct? I never asked about the conversion rate."

Griphook did a quick calculation in his head.

"The amount is correct."

"So far the system seems to be working. I'll bring over your new Navis when I come back for school. If you encounter any problems while adding the account numbers, have someone send me an owl. I left clear instructions on how to add the numbers."

"We'll tell you how it goes when you return," Griphook said.

* * *

><p>"So let me get this straight. The old man in charge of the school has repeatedly stolen your research notes and he is currently attempting to keep the school from going global?" said Chaud.<p>

"I can get internet there, but the speed is so slow it's useless. And I suspect he's tampered with the wards to affect the PETs I helped to adjust."

"I told the researchers about that problem, and they've created a new program designed to go around wards."

Ether quirked an eyebrow.

"Why would they care if I had issues with wards?"

"They don't, but this is the perfect excuse to research it and find a way around them. And since you have a literal army of volunteers, they want to use you to get it working. I heard if it succeeds, then it's going to be part of the standard models for the police. Apparently they had this issue before."

"And what about the internet problem?"

"That? They fixed that last month. You get to test whether or not it works in magic intensive areas. How is the bank project going?"

"I left them with instructions on how to add the accounts to the server. Hopefully it will make things easier for the muggleborns with PETs."

"At the very least it will make it easier for them to exchange gold outside the Alley."

"Do we have any spare Terminals for the PETs?"

"Yes. And before you ask, when you told me about the new server we upgraded it to run on magic, so all you have to do is install it. We have three set aside for you to take back."

"Thanks Chaud. Oh, before I forget..." said Ether. He handed Chaud something and the boy gave him a look.

"Do I dare ask what this is?"

"Open it. Consider it an early Christmas gift."

Chaud opened the long package and blinked twice.

"Is this what I think it is...?"

"A goblin forged copy of Protoman's Wide Sword? Yes. I had them make it after I left them a clear picture of what it looked like."

Chaud chuckled.

"Only you, Ether, only you."

If people saw the new addition to Chaud's office, they made no comment. Needless to say the boy rather enjoyed the gift.

* * *

><p>"Right over...here. Let's set it down boys!" said Ether.<p>

The goblins sat the new Terminal for PETs near the edge of the teller lines. The three new devices were set to the new Gringotts server, which after a few mishaps with the account numbers, was up and running. Needless to say the goblin clans were rather pleased with the new server, since it meant the transfer of funds went a lot faster between the muggle world and Gringotts. Ether had delivered the new Navis which were roughly based on each goblin and could battle viruses with the same fervor as the goblins did intruders.

The new PET terminals did more than make the bank muggle friendly. It made the lines a lot shorter for muggleborns. The terminals were based off the ones in the Tokyo district. All the student would have to do was jack into the terminal and withdraw their gold directly. It had a set limit of a hundred galleons, which was roughly what the goblins set for the standard vault anyway. Any more and they would have to go directly to their vault.

It also alerted them personally as to the amount in their account and gave them the option of transferring their money from the outside to their vault.

Aside from a few goblins nearly tripping on the cords that ran to the server, it was more or less a success. Those who had PETs were very pleased with the new system. The goblins were happy that the lines weren't nearly as long as they used to be.

In order to keep the wizards from getting any ideas of the place becoming too muggle, Ether had taken the precaution of having the entire thing warded against magic. The only ones who could remove it were what the Ministry called 'non-human entities' like goblins, house elves, werewolves, vampires...the works.

Which meant the pure bloods couldn't do a damn thing about it.

Ether was the first to test it out, and after he withdrew thirty galleons (the gold clinked out much like a vending machine would) he cheerfully bid the goblins a good day. After that he spent the gold on some books in Knockturn Alley that had been banned.

A very successful venture.

* * *

><p>The sound of cheering from the Ravenclaw house could be heard all throughout the school a week after the new term started. Why?<p>

Ether had finally had success in installing broadband internet. Many a muggleborn had gone directly onto the net and started on their muggle education, which many of them had been forced to complete over the summer because internet didn't exist at Hogwarts.

Ether had even made it so that if people didn't do their homework on time, they were locked out until they did. The teachers were rather pleased by this.

Dumbledore was not. He had been thwarted rather effectively by the boy, and the house system was coming down around him. Slytherins were getting along with muggleborns, and Gryffindors no longer hexed their rivals in the halls. Even the Weasley twins were getting in on it, looking up new muggle pranks to use!

He had to find a way to stop this craze from spreading too far, before it became too late!

Ether frowned after he heard the third complaint about the connection. It had been working perfectly for over a month, and because it was in the private Ravenclaw library Dumbledore couldn't access it. Flitwick could, but he didn't want to mess with it since becoming addicted to Sudoku online.

So Ether checked the connection himself.

He growled. Someone had placed a ward specifically to mess with electronics...and he had an idea who it was. He donned his glasses and brought out Fukurou.

It was time to place a ward around the school that would _allow_ devices to work despite other wards.

He wasn't seen for a week, and when he emerged he was starving. His homework had been sent to the teachers directly when informed of the assignment.

The amount of cursing from Dumbledore made his week of going without food or contact entirely worth it. Now there was nothing Dumbledore could do, since he didn't know how to work a ward to prevent wireless signals from working in the castle. To mess with those he would have to prevent the Wizard Wireless from working as well, and Ether knew that the teachers would immediately complain if something happened to the radios.

Some of them liked to listen to music while grading, according to Flitwick.

* * *

><p>"I always heard Hogwarts final exams were frightful," said Hermione.<p>

"Not with the addition of the PETs apparently. I had to shut down the inter-school net just so the teachers could be assured the students weren't cheating. Didn't stop a few muggleborns from using their notes during the exams."

"I still can't believe it didn't occur to them to have everyone hand over their PETs before the tests," Mandy chuckled.

"I did, however the reoccurring issue of the Headmaster's tampering with the devices made that idea rather impossible. Which is why I'm going to see if I can get a copy of the program that the teachers back home use to lock out students during test dates. It makes it impossible for the students to use their PETs for all but the most basic functions like calculators and translators...though the second one is also included in the lock down for foreign language classes," said Ether.

"Still, it is impressive. You've managed to do what many of the older students claimed was impossible and caused most of the fighting to become almost nonexistent in the school between houses," said Hermione.

"Don't forget what happened after I uploaded that potions book onto the server. Accidents in Snape's class have almost dropped to zero. Even Neville, who kept blowing up his cauldron until uploaded the book onto the library for download, has managed to brew a passable potion with that."

"And everyone else who refused to buy one has ordered the book from Flourish and Blotts," said Mandy.

"I still can't wait for you to digitize the library like you promised," said Hermione.

"It's a bit complicated. More so than the servers and the internet was."

"Why? I mean you got everyone more or less on the fast track to joining the non magical population in less than a year."

"That's because I had pre-made models and an army of researchers who were used to working around and with magic on PETs and servers. Scanners are going to take a bit longer, since a few of the things needed don't react well to magic at all. Why else would everyone have to jack into a terminal for the free for all battle systems?"

"You mean infrared lasers don't work?"

"Not in high magic areas. The only reason we can even get wireless is because those are radio wave based, not laser. And Dumbledore can't do anything about the signals because he doesn't know which frequency they're on and even attempting to block them would mess with the Wizard Wireless, which would raise a stink rather quickly."

"I didn't know that."

"In any event, so long as we are able to keep the PETs available to the student population, it will eventually bleed into the Ministry, and from there the British communities. Who knows...maybe by the time we graduate the magical community here will finally come out of the Dark Ages and not look so foolish in front of the world. I know for a fact everyone outside Europe looks down on Britain because it's so out of date that it's pathetic."

That was news to the girls.

"WHAT?!"

"Britain is considered a third world country magic wise. Mostly because they don't even acknowledge technology and cling rather desperately to the old ways. While it's considered a premier magical school, Hogwarts is on one of the lowest rankings for the magical school. About the only thing it's renowned for is the fact that it's a technology free environment. Why do you think I was working so hard to get the servers and internet connection up?"

"...I thought it was because you were an internet addict..." admitted Mandy.

Ether glared at her.

"Unlike most people, I can go without internet for months on end. I prefer books anyway. But one of the reasons I did it was so that Hogwarts can once again stand proud as a magical school for young magic users without being looked down upon for being out of the loop. But the main reason was because I noticed how some of the muggleborns struggled with their education, which I will not allow to continue."

He didn't notice people listening to his impassioned speech, or that it had spread to the rest of the muggleborns. Either way, he left Hogwarts knowing he had done something good.


	5. Chapter 5

Ether looked at the mass of owls from the other Ravenclaws. It seemed his attempts to bring Hogwarts out of the Dark Ages had gained him a rather large following. He also received a note from Flitwick (who had heard about the fact Hogwarts was in the lower tier of the magical schools) that he had looked up the facts and had been horrified to find that Ether wasn't joking.

The magical communities didn't just look down on Britain...they made a running gag about their graduates. Apparently being a Hogwarts graduate meant that you had extra fingers or toes, and didn't know what a computer was.

Flitwick wasn't pleased by the fact that having a Hogwarts education meant you could only get jobs _in_ Britain, and those the lowest paying ones world-wide.

Naturally the half goblin teacher immediately brought this to the Board of Governors who were just as horrified at this news, and were now in the process of adding new classes. They also went over Dumbledore's records as Headmaster...to say they weren't pleased was an understatement.

His position as Headmaster was in serious danger. Since becoming Head of Hogwarts, several classes had been removed which had been on the curriculum for centuries. They had been running on a skeleton crew of teachers and classes available, and the results showed.

Was Ether happy about all the work he caused Dumbledore?

Yes, yes he was. After the old man attempted to sabotage his efforts to bring Hogwarts back up to standards, he felt the old goat deserved a few sleepless nights.

The very idea of getting a substandard education simply because some senile old man was being lazy and stubborn rankled him.

* * *

><p>Dumbledore knocked back another batch of potion laced lemon drops. These had migraine relieving and calming draughts added.<p>

Ever since that foreign brat let it out that Hogwarts wasn't considered one of the best schools available for magic around, he had to deal with the Board of Governors, several angry parents, and the Ministry.

The Board was actually taking notice in the school now, and forcing him to hire new teachers in order to bring Hogwarts back to its former glory as one of the best magical schools in the world. Several parents, when informed of the substandard teaching, had been so angry that they removed their children and sent them to other schools in order to be properly educated by international standards.

And the Ministry was still angry that because of him, they had to deal with being the laughing-stock of the international magical communities.

The teachers, at least, weren't at fault. One had to be fired with benefits (the Muggle Studies Professor) and Binns had to be let go as the History of Magic teacher after the Board of Governors learned students didn't even bother listening to him, but rather studied the book on their own time.

Trelawny was only spared from this round of the fact that the Department of Mysteries had a prediction she had made personally on record within the last ten years. However now she wasn't allowed to drink on the job and the amount of incense had to go down considerably.

Her classroom had to be aired five times just to get the overwhelming scent out.

If Dumbledore got his hands on the foreign brat, he would strangle him the moment the kid came within reach. He _hated_ paperwork, and had mostly gotten rid of classes to lighten his load. Now it was going to be months before he could work out a system to get rid of the massive pile on his desk.

At least Snape had shut up about teaching the students under fifth year. Dumbledore had to hire an extra teacher to handle the fourth year and below after Snape went ahead and registered his _own_ complaint about teaching the younger students and made a request for some help.

Now they had an extra potions teacher who was friendlier to children and would actually teach them how the ingredients reacted to the potion. The book she was assigning?

The same one Ether had digitized for the school and was now a widely used study aid for potions and the few pure bloods had ordered when informed of it.

The worst part was the fact that when informed of the **PE**rsonal **T**erminals being a standard teaching device in schools around the world, Dumbledore lost his only chance to have them banned.

The fact Ether had gotten a working model up and running before his first year had ended only made it worse. Until they could get a newer one installed and a better internet connection created, Dumbledore was kept far from the devices.

All in all, he needed those migraine relievers and calming draughts desperately. It was the only reason he hadn't hexed his phoenix for trying to calm his nerves down with his song.

Though Dumbledore was rather annoyed that the sorting hat was laughing at his predicament.

* * *

><p>Lan was bored. Ether was the only person who could challenge him anymore, and he was gone nine months out of twelve at that rather backwards school. While his brother had always been driven to advance his mind, Hogwarts was only now coming out of the Renaissance period.<p>

When Ether offered to get him set up in the school and meet his friends, Lan had declined saying he wanted to hang around his some more. Frankly going to England didn't appeal to him that much, since the school barely had a working internet connection and he was the one Chaud called whenever Ether wasn't available to deal with trouble.

Which happened once every three months or so.

Maybe if Hogwarts wasn't regarded as the laughing-stock of the world he might consider joining his brother.

* * *

><p>Ether looked at the new school list with interest. Apparently his little speech did more than he had anticipated.<p>

Over half the old classrooms were being renovated and cleaned by the house elves, and several old classes were being brought back. The book list had filled out quite a bit, including books he had expected to find needed but never were. It was part of the reason he had pushed so hard to get those servers up and running.

Now it was starting to look like a proper magical school. At the very least he would have something to do while he dealt with the absolute nonsense that he would likely have to deal with because of the Lockhart fan.

The man was an absolutely disgrace, and it wasn't exactly a secret that he wiped the memories of the not so famous and took credit for them. Someone had once asked around about something he supposedly did and learned that the man hadn't even been there at the time.

There was a book that detailed his so-called exploits and corrected them.

Ether fully planned to bring it to school and skip the Lockhart books altogether.

Hermione's parents had gotten in contact with the Hikari family, so he had a place to stay while in England. Since he was supposed to go into Gringotts to check on the server and insure it was working properly (he promised a free inspection until he graduated from Hogwarts each year during the time he came in to get some cash to pay for the new books and the goblins had jumped on it) he was preparing to leave Japan for a few days. Inside his trunk was his revenge kit, prepacked since last time he never had a chance to use it.

If Dumbledore tried anything, he was going to find himself on the wrong end of Ether's favorite revenge prank on those with magical blood.

It looked like a huge black dog, often mistaken for a grim, and it generally made people paranoid as hell. It tended to howl like an Irish Black Dog on the moors, which made it even worse for the victim.

The look on people's faces when they saw it and heard the howl made him laugh. The fact he had a camera set to capture their expressions, more so. Though it had been a pain to get a recording of an actual Black Dog howling in the Irish moors.

"You have everything this time Ether?" asked his mother.

"Yes mom. Chaud won't be showing up asking for any of my kits this time around. Though to be fair, I wasn't anticipating a need to use the revenge kit at Hogwarts."

"As backwards as that place is, I'm amazed you want to go back," said his father.

"I owe it to my friends and those poor students at the school to finish what I've started. I'm the only person there qualified to fix their PETs, and the teachers barely know how to use theirs."

"Never leave a project unfinished. Like father, like son," said his mother.

"Well at least I can fully support this one. Your last project..." his father left hanging with humor.

Ether winced. His previous project was made out of boredom, and it tended to get him into trouble more often than not.

His last project was to make digitized versions of dragons in place of a firewall. While his father had originally approved of it, he didn't like the fact that Ether had accidentally given the dragons the one thing that was guaranteed to cause trouble.

He gave them a sense of boredom, just to see what would happen.

Ether still heard rumors of dragons on the net that caused absolute havoc to government sites. Thankfully he had made it impossible to trace back to him when they were isolated and taken apart. Too bad no one could completely remove the things because Ether had the core data and didn't want to come up with something to wipe out the dragons.

Mostly because if someone asked why he had that particular data he would be in a lot of trouble with quite a few people for creating them.

Chaud had nearly strangled him bare handed after a run in with one. Lan had laughed himself sick when he heard where they had come from...up until the point where Megaman ran into one during a mission and nearly got broiled alive.

Then Ether had an idea...he could always set them on Dumbledore if the man ever got his head out of his arse and got a PET. He knew Hagrid would love to play with them, since Ether had found a PET the man could operate vocally without mangling the device with his strength. The buttons were simply too small for his fingers, and to make them larger would be highly impractical.

* * *

><p>Hermione was practically bouncing while waiting for Ether. He was taking a plane to England and her parents had agreed to pick him up.<p>

The reason why she was so eager to see her best friend was simple enough. Because of his little speech that had been heard by quite a few people, Professor Flitwick included, there were even more classes for her to take. Several of which interested her more than the lack luster Arithimancy and Ancient Runes class.

She had little doubt that had the head of Ravenclaw not been informed of the fact that the school was considered one of the worst places to get a magical education, she would have been forced to take all the classes available just to feel challenged. How she could have accomplished that, she had no idea.

Finally she spotted a familiar goggle headed boy and waved her arm.

Ether saw her and went straight to the Grangers.

"Hermione! Konnichiwa! Daijobu deska?"

"Ether, either you speak the Queen's English now or I will have to hex you!" she growled.

"Gomen. However I thought you would enjoy learning Japanese seeing as how my father said he was interested in your rather impressive school resume."

"What?"

"Your parents kept going on and on about how intelligent you were that he had someone find out. He was very impressed, since the only other person who had that kind of record was, well me or Chaud."

Ether saw the fan girl glint in Hermione's eyes and did a quick calculation.

"So you like Chaud do you?"

Her father Dan chuckled.

"She's had a crush on him since he was ranked as one of the most intelligent boys and net battlers when he was eight."

"Bah, the only reason he got first was because I hate fan girls with a passion. I was never interviewed, since I was still in magical training for firsties."

"Um, Ether...do you think you could...?"

"I could introduce you...with a few requirements."

"Name them!"

"No fan girl tendencies. He hates them almost as much as I do. If I did introduce you, then try to keep an intelligent conversation going. I could possibly get your net battling experience up so you could hold your own for ten minutes with Protoman. Most fan girls barely last that long, which would really impress him. Don't become upset if he doesn't pay attention to you for longer than ten minutes at a time, he's rather busy policing the net. And whatever you do, never bring up the digital dragons that have been roaming the net for the past two years."

"You mean the ones that cause havoc after wandering around government and secure sites? Does Sci Lab have any idea where those things came from?" asked Hermione's mother Emma.

Ether coughed embarrassed.

"I plead the fifth."

"You're Japanese. You don't have the Fifth Amendment," said Hermione, looking at him suspiciously.

"Fine, I refuse to answer on the grounds that I would be incriminating myself for doing something rather foolish," he amended.

Hermione glared at him.

"You set the dragons loose."

"No! I never set them loose!" said Ether.

"Then why won't you talk about them?"

"I'm not saying."

"Ether..." Hermione said warningly.

Dan and Emma watched with open amusement as Hermione attempted to get Ether to spill about what he had to do with the digital dragons that were more of a nuisance than anything. The boy wisely kept his mouth shut and attempted to change the subject.

It wasn't until Ether found a way to get the girl to drop the subject that they actually laughed.

Hermione had bought the Lockhart set early and read them already. Ether handed her a book, told her it had been verified by several sources and was accredited by several accomplished magical people, and waited for her reaction.

The second she realized what she was holding in her hand, her jaw dropped and she nearly went ballistic on Ether.

He had given her the book that detailed the fact Lockhart was a third-rate fraud who stole the accomplishments of others. It even went on to explain what had actually happened, and how it was accomplished.

Hermione was devastated that her new books were in fact a pack of lies. Ether mollified her by saying he would get her an entirely different set and help her when he finally introduced her to Chaud.

Dan and Emma silently applauded the trick. He saved her from a lot of heartache in the future, and even made it so she could possibly meet someone she admired without making a fool of herself.

The fact he was possibly setting her up to get a boyfriend from Japan didn't bother them, so long as she was happy and he respected her.


	6. Chapter 6

Ether walked into the bank and like promised looked over the system with a fine-toothed comb. Aside from a few viruses that were easily taken care of, the system was working perfectly.

"You're all good. Aside from a few minor viruses, there aren't any problems. If any show up, feel free to owl me at any time," said Ether.

"We are in your debt, Lord Hikari. Thanks to you we have become more profitable than ever!" said Ragnarok.

"It's not a problem. I couldn't stand by with how behind England was. I'm actually planning to create an entire system that should connect you to all the banks world wide, instead of just Europe."

"That would be quite a boon. We have many branches around the world, but connecting to them, even with our new system, is quite troublesome."

"Connecting the system to the main internet was the biggest issue. Since you run in a magic exclusive environment it means that we have to use an older model, which is notoriously unreliable unless you continuously upgrade the software. Fortunately I have a large team of people who know what they are doing, so while it's difficult it is doable. If you need any help or a virus attacks the mainframe, owl me as quickly as you can. The longer a virus stays in the mainframe, the worse the damage will be. Especially if they happen to be a rogue Navi bent on destruction."

"There are rogues?" said Griphook.

"Quite a few. One is Shademan, though recently we managed to tie him to Snape so he isn't nearly as annoying."

"Could we get a list and description of these rogues?" said Griphook.

"Better yet, I'll upload a program which will e-mail me if one shows up by tracking it's digital signature. After the fifth time SciLab was nearly taken over, I created one that could track digital footprints. Saved us a lot of trouble figuring out who we were dealing with," said Ether.

An hour later he left the bank and went shopping.

The first thing he ran into was the owner of Flourish and Blotts. Apparently he wanted in on the new digital books in order to add to his bank account.

Despite being a pure blood, he wasn't a fool. The gold he could make off of Ravenclaws renting the books during the school year for something to read alone... It made his inner business man salivate!

Ether immediately put in an order for another set of equipment like he gave the goblins. He promised to install it by Christmas, since it wouldn't be nearly as hard to configure another internet installation now that he had an idea of what to do.

The second person to come to him was the owner of the Apothecary. Apparently Snape had some orders and heard Ether was in the Alley so he asked the boy to pick them up for him since he was in the middle of restocking the Infirmary.

Considering Ether had managed to create a passable relationship with the potionsmaster and gotten the number of points taken from Ravenclaw to drop like a stone, he was more than happy to help.

His final task was to pick up the newest copy of the Quibbler, since he rather liked it.

* * *

><p>Hermione was squealing when she saw the new course list. It had far more subjects on it than last time, some of which she thought she would have to wait until third year to take. And then there was the temporary mainframe Ether had set up with Flourish and Blotts until he could get a better one up and running.<p>

If it wasn't for the fact she had a limited amount of funds to work with, Ether would have bet his inheritance (from his dead parents, not that he knew who they were in order to keep a certain mind reader from learning who he was) that she would have bought it out in a day and bogged down her internet connection while crashing her PET.

That being said, Ether borrowed her PET and immediately upgraded the memory and RAM as much as he could without getting her a new one. At least until he could convince Chaud that she was an acceptable candidate for one of the prototype versions.

Ether couldn't wait to spring her on him at Christmas. His dad had already agreed to let her come visit, since the Grangers had done the same every time he came to England.

Hermione tackled him in a hug for updating the classes available. Ether chuckled as he filled up his rather lackluster schedule with classes he actually wanted to take and narrowly kept Hermione from trying to take them all.

"Relax Hermione. Most of these you can take in college."

"THERE'S A MAGICAL COLLEGE?!" she said loudly.

"Several," said Ether, cleaning out his ear.

Hermione looked like she was about to faint from information overload. Ether whocked her upside the head.

"Chill 'Mione. If you can keep from trying to overwork yourself for the rest of the year I'll see if you can't join me in SciLab for the summer working with dad. Kami knows he's been complaining about not having many good assistants these days..." said Ether.

"What about you?"

"I rank colleague and we work in different departments since he's non-magical. Plus there's the fact that the last time I was tricked into an IQ test I ranked higher than dad. Chaud found it funny that dad's adopted son was a better battler and had a higher IQ than his biological."

"You're adopted?" said Hermione. She never knew that...then again, there was the fact he looked nothing like the Hikari family...

"I may be adopted, but my dad and mom love me just as much as they do Lan. Though I do wish dad didn't have a thing for computer names..."

Hermione giggled. She still found it amusing that Ether's full name was Ether Net.

"Anyway, we have to pick up the few books that haven't been converted. That being said, any and all Lockhart books will be picked up from a second-hand shop and not at whole sale. For some reason wizards have yet to pick up the concept of renting books...well, except Mr. Flourish and that was only because of me making an offhand comment about the practice."

Hermione's eyes gleamed. She had a tendency to rent books often, so this was great news for her.

The two split up and hit the stores individually in order to maximize their time spent at the bookstore.

Because of how old the model was that Ether had given Flourish and Blotts, the only way to rent books was to do it in the store, and the owner quickly capitalized on that fact by charging for the time spent downloading the books which would vanish back into the main server by the end of the school year.

If that man wasn't a Slytherin back in school, Ether would eat that tacky hat he had been forced to buy.

* * *

><p>When Ether tried to get onto the platform, he found a problem.<p>

It was closed off for some odd reason. He pulled down his visor and found that someone had set the barrier against his specific magical signature. He growled when he recognized the signature behind it.

He swore in French, German and Japanese.

Dumbledore clearly wasn't happy about the paperwork Ether had caused him. He was trying to get the boy in trouble!

Fortunately Ether had other methods of getting to school. Plus he knew for a fact Professor Flitwick had a goblin-PET (which meant his Navi had real goblin armor which he had always thought he would never be allowed to have, even in that way) so any wards Dumbledore tried to set would be useless.

"Ether, what the bloody hell is going on?" demanded Hermione.

"Someone set up a magic ward specifically against me. I'm alerting Flitwick about our inability to make the train and that we are taking the Knight Bus to Hogsmeade instead," said Ether.

One quick E-mail sent via Fukurou later, and he reappeared a minute later.

"_Mr. Hikari, while I find it infuriating that the Headmaster dared to block the way to the platform, rest assured neither you or Miss Granger shall lose any points for taking the Knight Bus to Hogsmeade. Also, Professor Snape said that he will be the one to await your arrival. I should warn you that riding the bus to the school is very similar to that of a Gringotts cart, so please brace accordingly to avoid falling. Flitwick."_

"How do we summon the bus?" asked Hermione.

"Follow me," said Ether, leading her to a small side alley that had muggle repelling charms on it. He still had his visor on so he knew about the wards.

Ether held up his practice wand (he was a technomancer by trade, but he had a wand to keep the English from properly freaking out about using non-magical ways to cast magic) and waited a moment.

With a loud bang, the violent purple bus appeared.

Ether handed over a galleon and accept the change from the porter. Griphook had explained the conversion rate to the boy when he admitted that he didn't know it. Considering the fair was just shy of a galleon, it was easier to just get change.

The two were soon very happy that Flitwick had warned them... the ride was bumpier than a roller coaster and hitting turbulence while free falling from the sky. (According to Ether anyway.)

Still, they made it to the school relatively intact, even if their lunch didn't.

Ether was just glad he knew the cleaning charm.

The first thing Ether did when he saw Snape was hand the man a large box that had been fitted with a proper expansion charm. Snape checked the contents, nodded, and the lead the rather sickly second years up the school, their trunks floating behind them.

He had told them that since they were technically on school grounds, they were legally allowed to use magic. He would later regret this decision since it allowed Ether to see the loophole in the rules.

The rules clearly stated no magic in the halls. However, that only applied _inside_ the school walls. Since Hogsmeade was technically school ground, that meant that they were allowed to cast there as well.

The first thing Ether and Hermione did when they managed to get to the Tower was crash for a full hour. After that they more or less explored when Madam Pince politely informed them that the library would not be open until tomorrow morning at the earliest.

Though Ether still had something to keep Hermione occupied, as he had recently received a shipment of scanners that ran exclusively on magic that would put the Ravenclaw library into Nevermore.

Needless to say Hermione immediately started on that project while Ether wandered around the school. Computer nerd or not, even he needed a break from code more than once a blue moon.

It was because of this that he ran into a small problem. And her name was Myrtle.

* * *

><p>"Ugh!" cried Ether. His sandals were soaked, and not for the first time he was glad that he had decided to wear them rather than his regular shoes.<p>

Even if it meant his socks were now almost certainly ruined.

He pulled on his visor and found the water trail started in the girl's bathroom. Scowling in displeasure from having to walk in the water which he could only hope came from the sinks and not the toilets, he went in and came face to face with the still wailing Myrtle.

Once he got the story out of her (Peeves apparently had been making his yearly round of taunts before school...usually Filch or one of the house elves would have cleaned up the water by this point) Ether decided to focus on what he could do. So, in order to calm the girl down, he asked her how she died.

Most ghosts would willingly tell how they died if only so the living could help them pass on. There were a few rare cases like Nicholas, the Gryffindor ghost, who were terrified of passing on mostly because they weren't exactly saints in life.

In Myrtle's case, she had seen a pair of glowing yellow eyes in front of her stall, and she ended up floating out of her body before she realized what had happened.

Ether's frown only grew as he pressed the girl for any details.

Mostly because that description sounded far too much like a basilisk for his comfort.

(Ether knew he was a parselmouth, but since it wasn't looked down upon like it was in Europe, he had spent years focusing that ability to the point that he had actually made a dictionary on his PET in the event that the ability left he would still know what was said. Needless to say he did this in private because he got tired of his parents looking for a leaking gas main.)

So Ether investigated the pipes, finally stopping at the only one which appeared bone dry.

According to Mrytle, that one had never worked even when she was alive. Closer inspection revealed a stylized snake etched in the metal.

Considering there was a very high probability of a basilisk existing in the so called Chamber of Secrets (keeping up with Salazar's fascination with serpents), there wasn't a chance in hell Ether was going down there alone.

It was a good thing he had found out who was teaching this year with the addition of new classes. Three of them knew him by name and were going to have him as a teacher's aide for the other students so he could keep up with his own studies since he worked at a college level anyway.

(Lan studied at a high school level, magic wise. Mundane wise he was still at Middle School, but then again he was a technomancer like his brother.)

"What can we do for you Ether?" asked Professor Yukiru, on loan from the Tokyo University until her curiosity of third-world magical societies was satisfied or her thesis was complete.

"I have reason to believe that a basilisk is living under the school inside a hidden chamber. I interviewed a local ghost and the signs indicate a high probability of a basilisk," said Ether bluntly.

"Quote me the probability rate please," said Professor Lloyd, who was the temporary Arithimancy teacher until Professor Vector came off her sabbatical to relearn her subject.

"Probability ratio of 72 percent with a margin of error being 10 to 12 percent. The victim said that she floated out of her body before she realized what was happening until afterwords, that sounds of hissing was heard before the incident, and that the eyes were yellow. All signs of a basilisk," said Ether promptly.

"Local folklore indicates that Salazar Slytherin had a fetish for snakes, and a basilisk can be controlled by a parselmouth if they get their early enough. And according to history Slytherin was a parselmouth," said Professor Summer, the new history teacher.

All three of them knew Ether personally, as he had attended their classes and passed them with high scores.

"Further investigation revealed a pipe that has never been in use, even before the incident, and that there is a stylized snake etched in the metal. I believe this is the entrance to the fabled Chamber of Secrets," said Ether.

"Unfortunately the chances of the passage being protected by parselmagic are high. The fact that previous searches have yet to yield the entrance only proves this fact," said Summer.

"I have access to a parseltongue dictionary," said Ether.

"I forgot you specialize in that branch," said Yukiru.

What they left unsaid was the fact that Ether had published that book via the internet, which lead to quite a few people using the translators on their PETs to avoid poisonous snakes.

Considering he had only made it because his father had banned him from any technology until his magic calmed down after a certain incident in which Ether was nearly lost in Cyberspace, it was an unexpected boon to his bank account.

Though what most people didn't know was that as a result of retrieving the boy, Dr. Hikari had used the incident to create Megaman, the amalgamation of years of research and the use of his dead son's DNA to give Hub new life.

Megaman knew that he was the reborn version of Hub, he just didn't care. The fact that he couldn't exit cyberspace without a specialized area was the only reason Dr. Hikari hadn't been charged with Necromancy, which was a frowned upon art except in special cases.

That being said, it never stopped Lan from learning summoning from Ether. Unfortunately he could only sustain Megaman for a few hours at a time.

Professor Lloyd frowned.

"As long as it is contained, we shall have to leave it alone. There is no reason to stick our noses in a mythical Chamber just to remove a snake from it's territory. However if it becomes a problem, rest assured we _will_ be calling in reinforcements to relocate the thing."

"So I should start ordering the specially treated goggles just in case?" said Ether.

"I would say no, but prudence demands that we should be prepared for anything," said Professor Yukiru.

"I'll send out the order," said Ether.

"In the meantime, bring your little friend down here. I believe she's spent enough time digitizing that library for one night," said Professor Summer.

Ether gave her a salute and proceeded to drag an irate Hermione down from the tower to eat. Needless to say the Ravenclaws were pleased to hear that the library would be digitized before Christmas, since Ether had brought ten scanners and the Ravens planned to work in shifts to get that library into Nevermore.

Ether was a firm believer in Ravenclaw's philosophy that knowledge should be shared with others, not hoarded like goblins did their gold.

Which was why he was offering four copies of each book for the other houses to rent.


	7. Chapter 7

Ether stepped up to the makeshift podium. Because of how effectively he had made the school better, he was now the elected speaker for the Raven house.

As such he had the dubious duty of introducing the new kids to the dorms.

"Welcome fellow nerds and bookworms! You are one of the privileged few to be accepted into the house of Ravenclaw, where knowledge is challenged and expanded. As such you have the exclusive first tester's rights to the new gear I'll be introducing occasionally as the years go on! And for all returning Ravens, I have great news! I recently got a shipment of scanners so we can commence with digitizing the entire private Ravenclaw library to share with the other houses. Just for amusement's sake, we'll be keeping a track on who borrows what, for how long and how many times they come back to reread it~!" said Ether with a wink.

The older Ravenclaws laughed. Some were relieved, since it meant they could keep an eye on the library even if it was digitized.

"Now, before we send you off to see Morpheus, we do have to lay down a few grounds rules. First off, boys are not allowed in the girl's dormitory, though why the reverse isn't true we have no idea. Second, the library is open an hour before breakfast starts, though Madam Pince isn't around until after it's over, so if you want to skip breakfast for some extra reading time you are free to do so. Just know that the Grey Lady is the unofficial keeper of the books until Madam Pince is there to check them out for you. Any attempts to leave without checking them out will result in Peeves making you his target for a week. You have been warned. Second, even though Professor Snape has finally gotten his wish to avoid teaching everyone under fifteen, he is still a teacher. That being said, I wouldn't recommend asking him any questions, since he generally does not like to deal with children. Finally, if any of you have any special dietary needs, please inform either a prefect or our head of house Professor Flitwick so that we can tell the house elves in charge of food. On another note, anyone caught trying to avoid eating just to read and have been warned more than three times will be banned from both libraries, their PET and their own personal stash until Madam Pomphrey is through chewing you out and you start eating regularly again. Skipping meals every once in a while because of books is acceptable _occasionally_, but continuing to do so at the sake of your health is not. Any further questions can be directed to either the prefects, Professor Flitwick, or your new students guide. In order to avoid any missed classes, we have included a rudimentary 3D map that you can download for six knuts that will tell you where the classes are."

"Alright girls, your dorms are to your right. Boys, yours are on the left. Remember, we don't mind answering questions here," said the new Fifth year prefect.

With his part done, Ether found himself leading the new firsties up to their dorms. He found it mildly amusing.

The second his head hit the pillow, he was dead to the world.

* * *

><p>Ether found it highly amusing that he had acquired a fresh set of ducklings in the form of the firsties. So did the prefects.<p>

The fact he didn't hesitate to show them how to make their battles more fun on their PETs didn't hurt either.

In fact, out of the new crop of children to enter Hogwarts, only one of them stuck out in his mind.

Luna Lovegood.

While she was a pure blood, she at least knew her way around a PET somewhat without instruction. It was more than could be said of Draco, who still had trouble with net battling.

Fortunately for the boy, Ether never made fun of him because of that.

Luna had actually approached him during the scheduled maintenance of the servers, which Ether had enlisted the aid of several muggleborns who knew what they were doing. And the two just clicked.

Ether was very pleased that a pure blood actually _knew_ what a modem was, let alone knew what an ether net cable did and yet didn't feel the need to remind him about his name.

That being said, Ether wasn't surprised in the least when he first attended Lockhart's first (and soon to be only among those who actually wanted to _learn_ the subject, since the new teachers had no issue filling the great void Lockhart created) only to find the man was just a big a ham as rumors had said.

Their first test was about what little details they had picked up from the books about the man himself, and after that he had one of the students reenact scenes from whatever particular book he had on hand.

Ether had been thoroughly disgusted with the half assed teaching in that subject, and wasn't surprised in the least when the servers were nearly bogged down from people renting the book detailing the real facts behind Lockhart's so called achievements.

Clearly Dumbledore wasn't aware that the book existed, or Lockhart would have been kept from being hired at all. The man was an out and out fraud.

That being said, the new staff had created a defense club solely so they could give the students some homework that actually qualified as such. Only the extremely lazy or especially dense of the houses kept going to Lockhart's class.

Among those was a certain Ron Weasly, who Ether didn't particularly like. The boy was a natural strategic genius, yet his mind was completely wasted because he was so damn lazy.

He had one of the highest scores in the 'bot Net Battling sessions, yet he couldn't get off his lazy bum to do his homework unless he had to.

It baffled Ether as much as it frustrated him. Still, he managed to keep that from bothering him during his real life by challenging the boy to chess using a secondary Navi that his father had given him since he was so interested in Megaman.

It was a perfect cover to challenge Ron with, since the user said EH and Ron thought he was playing against a Slytherin.

Ether's secondary Navi (which he used when he wanted to be anonymous while annoying someone, to the Navi's amusement) was female with red hair, green eyes and wore white. She also had tiger ears and a tail, though that was alternating red and gold.

It was one of the few memories he had of his birth mother, a woman with red hair and green eyes much like his own. He named his spare Navi Tigerlily, because it was the only thing he could think of that would fit it.

Amusingly enough, she was rather playful and got along smashingly with Fukurou.

Plus there was the rather drab nature of Luna's Navi that bothered him. It was a standard one that had no personality, and as someone who had two personalized Navis, that bothered him greatly to see one so boring.

Still, he scarcely knew Luna that well, so he did a wait and see. And what he saw did not impress him.

Lovegood was being bullied by almost everyone because as far as he could tell, she had the Sight and a rather impressive imagination. Both of which did little to endear her to the backwards English magical society.

Which resulted in her clinging slightly to Ether, who treated her normally and even entered spirited debates about her father's magazine (she was pleased to hear that he actually read it and found it a more amusing read than the _Daily Prophet_) from time to time.

The fact that he happened to send some scanners to her father so that he could have a digital copy for students to subscribe to didn't hurt either. In fact the profits from that actually doubled what he was already making from the physical copies.

When asked why he didn't offer the same thing to the _Daily Prophet_, _Witch Weekly_, or _Quidditch Illustrated_ (the magical equivalent of Sports Illustrated funnily enough) he was able to cover himself by claiming that he wasn't sure if they would know how to work the device, let alone be willing to try it.

This case was proven when they saw an article by Rita Skeeter who disparaged the use of muggle items at Hogwarts.

Ether knew he would face opposition by bringing the English out of the Dark Ages finally, but he hadn't expected this much. Then again, he had an idea of why they were so upset about the PETs.

They were scared. This was muggle in origin, yet they did as much as they could to avoid catching up with the non-magical societies of the world.

That being said, Ether had little to no respect for the English Ministry. And since he was a legal Japanese Citizen who only attended the school as part of an exchange program (seeing as how he attended magical college before coming here) they had little sway on what he did.

* * *

><p>Ether was about to leave the library when he ran into Nick mumbling about a spectral letter he had received a week ago. It was almost Halloween, a day that for some reason he wasn't that enthusiastic about at all. He reasoned it had something to do with his heritage which he refused to learn until it was safe to do so.<p>

(The goblins had already offered to give him Occulmency lessons for free, seeing as how he had helped them with the money exchange issue with muggle banks. He planned to take them up on that in the summer when he had more free time.)

"Hello Sir Nicholas. What seems to be troubling you this evening?" asked Ether.

"Oh nothing young Raven. Just ghostly business."

"It can't possibly be nothing good sir, if it bothers you this much. I have free time right now so I would be happy to listen to your complaints," said Ether politely. Ether made it a point to be polite to ghosts. In Japan there were far, far too many stories of ghosts taking offense and killing people. Or worse, arranging accidents by their mere presence and forcing them to stick around even after death until their business was settled.

Nicholas took him up on that invitation, because he told Ether about the Headless Hunt and their refusal to let him join simply because he didn't technically fit the requirements of a dullahan.

Ether, however knew something Nicholas didn't. The existence of other ghostly clubs, some of which didn't have a European ghost in their membership.

Which was why Ether told the unhappy Gryffindor ghost about said clubs and how to contact them. Nicholas brightened up when Ether commented that by excluding someone as hardy as Nick, they were acting decidedly Slytherin about it all, which as a Gryffindor, Nicholas would naturally be against.

Nicholas was so pleased with the news of other clubs he could join that he invited Ether and any friends interested to his Death Day party. Since it meant he wouldn't be forced to endure the cheer the other children had for the holiday (which he only put up with because it would involve explaining why he didn't like it that much) he agreed to it, provided that there would be food for the living as well as the dead.

* * *

><p>Ether left Ravenclaw house with Luna, Hermione and Mandy. They were joined by the twins (who planned to use it as an alibi should they prank anyone during that time period), Neville and a rather bored Draco Malfoy who didn't feel like dealing with his house at the moment.<p>

Ether later learned it was because Draco had been caught with some muggle books, and spells nearly went flying because of it.

Fortunately for Draco, all those books had been inside his PET, which had quickly become a standard item for school seeing as how it made note taking infinitely easier. None of his dormmates could ruin those books, and Ether had supplied a program to hide the books in until Draco felt like reading them later.

(It should be noted that Ether's special magically-ran PETs worked similar to a Kindle or tablet as the screen could be projected above the actual LCD display. Or in the case of those able to afford it, a special visor that only worked one way that allowed them to see it directly in front of them similar to that EyePhone episode of _Futurama_.)

Needless to say Draco was very happy with the fact Ether sent some free books for him to read later...and a link to a site for a story that was written with pictures and words that he called manga.

(Ether would later learn that Draco had become absolutely addicted to certain series like Negima, Naruto and Bleach. Naturally he found this fact amusing.)

"Welcome friends..." said Nick in a mournful tone. Ether found that amusing, but didn't say anything.

"This is a very interesting party, Sir Nickolas," said Ether tactfully. His friends nodded quickly in agreement...though their attention was on the three tables of food. One was for the ghosts, the other two for the living.

Once they had introduced themselves properly to the other ghosts (and filled themselves with food and candy) they mingled with the ghosts. Ether had proposed to his fellow ravens that they should ask about what events in history the ghosts had witnessed personally, and since it would make the evening less awkward overall they did.

Needless to say all those present got rather _high_ marks for their papers from Binns, who actually seemed to notice them for a change.

Everything was going great (Ether had managed to keep Myrtle the bathroom ghost from leaving the party early in tears simply by asking her about how Hogwarts was in her time...apparently few people wanted to be near the emotional ghost) until the Headless Hunt appeared right as Nick was trying to give his speech.

Nick was irritated beyond belief, now that he had been accepted by a different group of ghosts who had died in rather rough manners. Clearly his inability to die because of the blunt axe qualified. He was their first European ghost.

Before Sir Patrick could mock Nick in front of his guests, a samurai who had many stab wounds and a nasty looking arrow wound walked between him and Nick.

_"Excuse me gentlemen, but I have to ask why you chose to wait until our friend was about to make his speech to interrupt his party?"_ asked the samurai.

Ether translated for his friends, since most ghosts didn't have the language barrier once they were dead. It was the reason why, on the rare occasions that a foreign child was accepted and couldn't speak English clearly or at all, a ghost was there to translate for them.

Patrick sneered at the foreign ghost.

Nickolas regained his wind and he glared at Sir Patrick.

"Ether was correct. You _are_ a Slytherin with the way you act. If you must know, Sir Patrick, I have decided that I simply cannot join a club of ghosts that look down on everyone else like they were nothing. Fortunately, one of the students was kind enough to hear my problem and direct me to a better one," said Nick.

The twins shared a look before giving Ether a thumbs up for helping Nick.

The samurai looked at Sir Patrick with clear disapproval.

"_I must ask, sir, that you leave. Clearly you are not welcome here."_

Patrick finally noticed the glaring from the other ghosts. Even Peeves, the nuisance maker of the castle, was giving the man the evil eye. He may be a poltergeist, but that didn't mean he had no loyalty. Sir Patrick was a foreign ghost from outside the castle. Nick was a sorta friend who was nice enough to invite him.

In the end, Sir Patrick left without causing too much trouble and they got to hear Nick's speech in it's entirety. A few of the Dullahans did congratulate Nick for reaching five hundred in ghost years before leaving.

Unfortunately that was the only good thing about the evening...as when they passed the hallway leading to Myrtle's bathroom they ended up soaked (she had flooded the place prior to leaving for the party and the elves were too busy with the Feast to clean it up) and in full view of the message that someone had painted on the wall. Ether confirmed it was blood, though he had no idea which kind.

He scraped off a sample and sent it to a friend of his in Scotland Yard since they were closer.

(A few days later he got a letter back telling him it was chicken's blood.)

Draco recognized the name, but in an effort to remain friends decided against the first thing that came to mind when he read it. Mostly because he knew Ether wouldn't like it, since he was likely a muggleborn anyway.


	8. Chapter 8

Ether walked up to the three professors he knew would listen to him and explained the full situation. Unfortunately they would need better proof than a simple attack on the caretaker's beloved cat. A student would at least have to be attacked before they called in professionals to safely remove the snake and raid the Chamber.

The fact Ether planned to digitize the books (if there were any) and let all the students read them only did credit to his honor. Then again, he was a Ravenclaw to the core.

A few days after the Quidditch match, they had their smoking gun. Ether had already insured that enough Mandrake potions would be on hand just in case, to the relief of Filch.

(He officially declared Ether free to wander the corridors so long as it was Filch who caught him and not one of the other teachers.)

Colin confirmed what they already knew...a giant snake was in the castle. Dumbledore pretended to act on the information, but since he had no idea where the chamber was (even though all he had to do was ask Myrtle to get a general idea) he was unable to stop what happened next.

* * *

><p>Ether lead them to the girl's bathroom and opened up the entrance. Once he activated the stairs (no way was someone like Salazar sliding down that muck, cleaning charms or not!) they walked down. Myrtle was quite happy to keep everyone out by enlisting Peeves to distract the teachers.<p>

"It's confirmed... Basilisk, probably as old as the ruddy castle," said Phil.

It wasn't their first time with a basilisk, though this was their biggest one to date.

"Do we have enough gas?" asked his assistant.

Everyone there was armed and prepared for a basilisk. They worked on a magical creature reserve, and were often called to remove the more dangerous ones from inhabited areas. One time they were nearly called to remove the Acromantula colony Hagrid had in the forest because of concerned locals.

Hagrid managed to keep them because he convinced Aragog to keep his colony inside the forest.

"We'll deal with the snake, you lot keep an eye out for any extra rooms. Salazar Slytherin wasn't foolish enough to leave a secret chamber behind just so his pet could roam freely under the castle," said Regulus. He was a former Slytherin who had lost his memory and had been rescued by a group of, well to be blunt their usual job description was monster exterminators.

They had barely managed to rescue him from a rather nasty group of Inferi.

The only thing he could remember was his first name, and when they found out which family he belonged to they agreed it was better for all involved he didn't remember.

It had been a pain to get his Dark Mark removed to avoid trouble with the authorities later. In exchange he agreed to work off his debt by helping them deal with creatures like the basilisk.

"What do we do with this skin?" asked Ether.

"Well, since you are the resident parselmouth and the one who alerted us to the issue and location...how about you keep it as a down-payment for making our job much easier?" suggested Phil.

"I'm also the kid who got bored one month and made that snake dictionary," said Ether helpfully.

"Kid, you ever get tired of numbers and computers, you come see us about a job. That dictionary has saved our lives more times than we can count," said Phil.

Anyone who would make something like a parselmouth dictionary available to everyone was someone they wanted on their team.

"My dad banned me from the net that month because I nearly got lost on it. So I made it to pass the time. Had to find a more secluded spot because my parents thought it was a leaky pipe," laughed Ether.

That got a good laugh, lifting the spirits of the group.

Ether opened the door for them, and took a wild stab in the dark to guess that the relief on the back had the basilisk.

"First things first, let's raid the place and then we'll deal with the snake," said Phil.

"Agreed!" said the group.

It took them an hour to find the hidden rooms full of books, which Ether had Fukurou take to his private study to 'add' to the Ravenclaw collection once he filtered out the really bad stuff which would be locked in his vault until needed. Several artifacts were placed in a spare dungeon for them to hand over to the Hogwarts Cultural Society later (they kept an eye out for Hogwarts Founder's artifacts, among other things). And a moving portrait of Slytherin was removed from the wall to be placed in the halls later (he was rather happy to be out of that dank room).

Finally they were about to deal with the snake when someone came down. It was a young first year girl holding a book.

Regulus didn't hesitate. She should never have been able to come down there unless she was the one responsible for setting the snake out to begin with. Old memories of a certain locket came to the forefront, but he ignored them so he could stun the girl.

She went out like a light. He took the diary from her hand and held it with distaste.

"Regulus? You okay?" asked Phil.

"I just remembered a similar instance...before you rescued me from those inferi..." said Regulus.

It was no secret that the Ministry only thought they ran things, but in truth it was just a farce. The real power in Europe was the guilds, such as the Creature Removal and Disposal guild, I/E Monster Hunters.

With the girl out and the diary placed in magical suspension, Ether opened the chamber.

Everyone put on gas masks and the moment the snake came out, the entire chamber was filled with the knock out gas.

The Ministry hacks might do things the hard way and only use magic, but the Monster Hunters usually went the muggle way. Less deaths and it was safer for the creature they were trying to help.

The snake breathed deeply of the gas...and promptly crashed.

"_Alright boys, start levitating. That gas should keep it out for at least an hour, but we need to work fast,"_ said Phil, his voice muffled because of the mask.

It took them fifteen minutes to get that snake out of the chamber and up the stairs, and that was with everyone helping with the lifting.

* * *

><p>By the time Dumbledore caught on to what was happening, they were just leaving the bathroom.<p>

Students, teachers and ghosts watched in shock as they came out.

Ether had already removed his mask.

"Headmaster, your methods were just too inefficient for me to stand, so I called the professionals. The chamber has already been sealed away and with the removal of the snake it should be safe to walk the halls again," he said promptly.

"Why are you carrying it in the halls?!" shrieked McGonagall.

"We need to get it outside so we can move it to a nature preserve where it can live with it's own kind. Relocation is usually the first thing the Creature Removal and Disposal Guild attempt when dealing with dangerous animals in human inhabited areas. If not...well, then the market would get an increase in rare goods for a time," said Ether.

He then turned to Hagrid.

"Hagrid, Phil would like a word with you about...Fluffy...later."

They managed to keep the snake sedated long enough for transport to the reserve.

* * *

><p>Ether stood before the great hall the next morning, having already prepared a speech to calm the other students down so they could actually enjoy this year. Plus it would keep Dumbledore from trying anything.<p>

(He had already promised some of the skin to Snape in exchange for a few get out of detention cards for Ravenclaw.)

"Everyone, as I am sure you are all aware, yesterday the Creature Removal and Disposal guild took a basilisk from this castle. That snake is the infamous monster from the Chamber of Secrets, which has been cleared and sealed to prevent a repeat," said Ether.

Not technically true, as he had found a spare passageway that lead to the library. He wasn't going to share that though.

"Now, as the monster has been remove and the chamber sealed, I am sure many of you are wondering why it had been opened. I have in my hand here, a duplicate copy of a book. This book is what is known as a horcrux, a rather foul application of magic that rips your soul into pieces for a chance at immortality. What most Europeans don't know is that these items do not always work, and that the Egyptians used to make them frequently. Goblins come across these pieces occasionally and destroy them on principle. This is because creating a Horcrux can fracture your magical core, rendering the one who creates it a squib," said Ether. It was a little creative spin, but it would help keep the darker students from making them.

As Ether put a little creative spin and completely bypassed what else had been down in the chamber aside from an actual portrait of Slytherin (most of the students were delighted to talk to the portrait of an actual founder, particularly his snakes) and the books (which were currently being filtered by Fukurou in his room) and the snake.

With that taken care of, Ether went to eat his breakfast.

Regulus walked into Gringotts to ask about his brother Sirius. He only vaguely remembered his older brother, mostly that the man had been an ass. He was naturally angry Sirius never had a trial and went to Azkaban to get his side of the story.

Naturally Sirius was _very_ surprised to see his dead brother alive and well...and no longer a Death Eater. Even more so when the same brother starts doing his best to get his older brother a trial despite their differences during the war.

Fortunately one of Regulus' new coworkers took pity on him and explained the amnesia.

* * *

><p>Ether took one look at the owl bearing the Gringotts seal, read the letter and swore.<p>

"Dammit all to hell... Why did Freezman chose this month to attack the bank servers?!"

Ether immediately informed Flitwick of the issue, grabbed a few willing and able net battlers who knew what they were doing, and floo'd to Gringotts within the hour.

It took them five hours and several special chips courtesy of Ether, but eventually they chased the rogue navi off. Ether spent another hour re-fortifying the firewalls, double checking all the programs and then being paid a very reasonable fee for the removal along with the others.

Naturally they all went to sleep the moment their heads hit their pillows.

Ether was halfway to the library when Lockhart appeared. Ether and nearly everyone in the school had been ditching his class for more lessons from the teachers he had brought in.

Apparently Lockhart wasn't as big a fool as they believed, because he had already figured out the leader of this quiet revolt. He drew Ether out into an abandoned classroom, unaware the boy had sent a quick text to the other teachers (namely the outside ones).

Five minutes later Professor Summer and a few others burst in to find Lockhart crying on the floor with his hand broke, his wand snapped and Ether looked very pissed off.

"He tried to modify my memory so I could convince the other students to return to Defense!" he snarled. He gave Gilderoy a boot to the groin for good measure.

Lockhart was arrested and thrown in prison when it came to light he had been erasing the memory of anyone who looked vulnerable and claiming their fame.

Meanwhile Ether started a petition among the more serious students that would make Dumbledore take notice.

* * *

><p>"What is this Mr. Hikari?" asked Dumbledore kindly. The boy had been a thorn in his side from day one!<p>

"Read first," said Ether with a growl.

"A petition to remove me if I continue to hire sub-par teachers?" he said in shock.

"As headmaster, you should have looked everywhere for a teacher, even a temporary one. Gilderoy Lockhart is a known fraud and criminal. Quirrel had that Dark Lord you lot are so terrified of in the back of his head. Dumbledore, you need to do better background checks on your teachers or I _will_ be making this a matter for the School Governors," said Ether coldly.

Dumbledore winced. This would never end well.

* * *

><p>The year ended quietly, and Hermione made plans to join Ether at his house so she could intern at Sci-Lab this summer.<p>

At least she would be more bearable thanks to Lockhart. She wouldn't hang off Chaud while she was there either.

Ether ran up to his parents, who heard about the difficulty he had this year and hugged them. Lan was next.

"You have _no_ idea how glad I am to go home," he said bluntly.

"Considering the letter we got from Professor Summers, yes I do," said Dr. Hikari dryly. His adopted son was such a trouble magnet.

"Dad, I would like you to meet a friend of mine. Ms. Hermione Granger," said Ether, dragging Hermione to the front.

"I am such a fan of your work!" she said.

"It's rare to meet a young lady such as yourself who understands what I do," said Dr. Hikari smiling.

Lan sidled up to his brother.

"She staying in the guest bedroom?"

"Her parents already agreed to let her come stay with us over the summer. According to them, she rarely makes any real friends. Just be a techno geek or talk magic to her and you'll get along fine. As a warning, she does tend to take the written words as gospel a little _too_ often," said Ether. Lan nodded.

His friends had been wanting to meet someone from England since Lan told them where his brother was going. Now they could meet Hermione.

Then Ether grinned evilly.

"She's a Chaud fan girl," he whispered.

"Really?" said Lan, grinning now. Chaud _hated_ fan girls.

"Can't wait to see his reaction to a fan girl actually interning at Sci-Lab," snickered Ether. Lan joined him.

* * *

><p>Sirius was in shock. Not only had his brother returned, alive and no longer a complete jerk of a Death Eater, but he was freeing him from prison when he learned Sirius never had a trial!<p>

So here he was, nearly three months after Regulus appeared, in a goblin courtroom. At least Fudge wouldn't be able to have him Kissed once his innocence was proven.

Which was why his first request when he was cleared of all charges and freed was that he could see his godson.

"Godson? I haven't the faintest clue where he is. I suppose we could always ask the goblins," said Regulus.

"Oh, we know where he is. But while he claimed the vault he has yet to claim the name for security reasons," said Ripfang.

"Security reasons?" said Sirius.

"Long story short, the kid is trying to bring the Magical communities out of the dark ages. Dumbledore wouldn't like that and he would absolutely hate it if he found out it was his missing pawn. Plus there is the fact that it's well known the old man would attempt to leave the kid with his muggle aunt, and the kid was legally adopted in another country," said Ripfang.

The goblins had done _extensive_ research in Ether Hikari after he successfully managed to connect them to the muggle banks. It wouldn't do to have a business relationship without getting to know their partners after all.

They were surprised that Ether was in fact the missing Harry Potter. It was pure luck Griphook happened to catch the infamous scar under Ether's bangs and put two and two together.

"Can I at least know what house he's in?" asked Sirius hopefully.

"Ravenclaw, and he's considered their spokesman," said Ripfang.

"Come on Sirius, let's get you back to my apartment and we'll start you on a strict regiment to recover your strength. If you can get into acceptable condition you can apply to Hogwarts and see him as his Defense Professor," suggested Regulus.

Sirius nodded and went with his brother. It was nice to be able to get along with Regulus for a change.


	9. Chapter 9

It was supposed to be a fairly quiet summer. Well, except for the looks Chaud got on his face shortly after he realized that Ether's friend was one of his more intelligent fan girls.

To Ether's surprise and somewhat disappointment, Chaud asked Hermione out for a light date...the two just clicked.

Though it was what they clicked over that irritated him and amused Lan. They clicked over Ether's many mishaps.

Of course that wasn't the biggest excitement of the summer. Though Ether still had yet to figure out if what happened was a blessing or a curse.

He got a 'girlfriend', though there was some debate between Ether and his parents as to whether the hacker who had attached herself to him after she broke through his rather extensive firewalls on his work was actually his girlfriend.

* * *

><p><em>Two weeks into Ether's summer vacation, in a remote undisclosed location...<em>

A determined mouth chewed through the pocky in short fashion, devouring one box after another as fingers flew on the keyboard. Reaching and failing to find a fresh box, a hand snapped their two fingers together and a new treat was summoned with an impressive display of wandless magic. This time it was a bag of cheesy chips.

Eyes, unused to sunlight were glued to multiple LCD screens that cycled through information too fast for normal eyes to comprehend, though this pair was well trained.

Firewalls were examined, broken and left in tatters to this determined hacker. What use was their Net Navi when they could do it with pure skill alone?

"_Renkin-sama, you promised you would go to sleep when it turned two thirty. Well it's two forty-five and you're still up,"_ complained her Navi Hikari.

"Five more minutes Hikari. Almost done with this server... I don't get paid unless I hack them," said Renkin, who had almost forgotten what her real name was.

"_Renkin-hime, why did you agree to take on this case? I've heard rumors about this Fukurou and I don't want to have to fight him off while you delete your trail,"_ whined Hikari.

Hikari became rather grumpy when she hadn't had any sleep. It was something she had picked up from her partner. Renkin had a unique skill that made her very desirable for criminals...she could merge directly with Hikari to break into secure servers and leave the police baffled. Even the great Protoman couldn't find her when she did that, because her digital signature changed too much.

"Finally!"

"_Will you go to sleep now?"_

"Have to leave a back door for later, then sleep. Ready Hikari?"

"_*sigh* Do I have a choice?"_

Renkin placed her hand on the screen and Hikari enlarged hers to fit her partner.

**Bio-Merge. Synchro start... Drive initiated...**

Hikari and Renkin merged into one unit. She was an even mixture of the two partners. Hikari contributed the armor, weapons, and the foxy features. Renkin shared her body (except for the bust, which was the combined sizes of her and Hikari) and the eyes. Around their neck was the source of their unison. No one suspected the odd red gem around their neck was the key focus of their power. If it was destroyed or removed Hikari and Renkin would separate instantly and be forced back to where they started.

It was a little safety feature Renkin had added in the event they got stuck in a place that would be too dangerous for them.

And to add to the confusion, their hair turned a bright sunny blond and their face was obscured by a cheerful fox mask. It was another safety precaution.

Certain Navis could be tracked by their appearance alone, and she refused to be caught that way. Hence why their appearance changed so drastically.

Sakura, for that was the name she chose for this form, grinned as she cracked her knuckles.

"**Time to go to work."**

Sakura wove her magic, leaving a small hole that wouldn't be noticed until she slammed into it later and shattered the wall.

After spending seven long hours staring at each piece of code, she was able to reconstruct it perfectly except for five key points which, if one looked at it from a distance, looked exactly like a five-pointed star. Her little quirk and calling card.

She sensed someone approach, and the special Navi-human disappeared by removing the necklace.

Fukurou came to investigate the break-in alone, mostly since it was so late that Ether would be sound asleep and found everything was normal. He inspected the wall, and aside from a few holes that he left a makeshift patch job on so Ether could fix them properly later, there was nothing wrong.

He left, unaware that Sakura's special virus was destroying his patches without leaving a trace.

It took a ninja Navi to hide from a ninja Navi after all.

* * *

><p>Ether was in his lab, hiding from Chaud and Hermione who were on the warpath after he had pranked them when they had returned from another date when he realized something was off about his firewall.<p>

It was nearly time for lunch, and he wasn't expecting anything to happen when he poked at it.

Suddenly the internal alarms for Sci-Lab went off like crazy, and the place went into lock down mode as something responded to his actions.

He was completely locked out from the outside, and because of his prank he had disabled the locks beforehand.

It would take hours before anyone could reroute the codes to unlock his door, and Ether was very, very glad that he kept a fully stocked mini-fridge hidden under his desk.

He was fairly sure Lan knew about it, since he occasionally found things missing, but most people left it alone.

There was a girlish giggle from his private server which was cut off from the Sci-Lab main one for security reasons.

He looked at the screen...and was shocked to find a very busty blond female ninja wearing a fox mask and with the features of a kitsune staring back at him.

"**Uh-uh, you're not getting out that easily Mr. Scientist!"**she giggled, fox tail waving behind her.

"Who are you? How did you break into my server?" he asked.

The kunoichi giggled again.

"**Wouldn't you like to know. I'll give you this much, I've never had to spend so much time sifting through firewall code just to get in before!"**

Ether decided observation was a better idea. The girl wore purple clothing that had faint fuchsia-colored Sakura flowers and a traditional kunoichi's outfit. She had arm guards and a ninjato at her waist. Her mask was white, except for the red highlights the emphasized the fact that this was a fox.

All in all, she fit the description of only _one_ Navi capable of hacking into his server.

"You're the Ephemeral Fox, aren't you?" he asked.

Ephemeral Fox, or just The Fox for short, was a notorious hacker who's calling card looked like a star shaped hole in firewalls. If she successfully got the data she was sent after, the pattern shifted into a Sakura flower.

No one had been able to track her, as every time someone came close to doing so she simply vanished until her next assignment. And her digital signature never appeared anywhere else except for the areas she hacked.

Even Protoman had trouble even catching her, and he had confronted her thirteen times already!

Ether had heard a rumor that the Fox was a very special, unique Navi that had a magical signature, which was why it was impossible to find her. Others said that the Fox was really a team of three... a spy Navi, a human and the Fox herself.

Either way, he couldn't let her leave with any of his data.

"You do realize I'll have to stop you, right?"

"**You can try. Protoman's never been able to catch me!"** she said with a laugh, before she vanished.

Ether cursed in Mandarin, before he grabbed his special PeT.

"We're going in," said Ether.

"_Ether, that mode has never been tested. You do remember what happened _last_ time we tried this right?"_

"We don't have a choice. You know that our firewall is for only the most dangerous of the stuff we work on. If any of it gets out..."

Fukurou sighed.

"_I am not taking the blame for this. Let it be known I was the voice of reason!"_ said Fukurou.

Ether and Fukurou had, once or twice, tried to merge together. It was possible for Navi's created using a special method to _merge_ with their users.

Navis like Fukurou and Megaman.

Ether tried the merge, and while he had done it successfully he found separating almost impossible. It had taken him two weeks of being stuck online and one long month of no computers before he was even _allowed_ to be in Scilab after that mistake.

Because he was a total sci-fi nerd, Ether immediately struck a pose as he 'merged' with Fukurou.

Inside digital space, black wings sprang from his back. His green eyes became amethyst colored and his hair became a deep violet. He never could figure out why his black and red hair always turned a deep purple color when they merged. He wore an outfit similar to a ninja, only it was skin tight and sleeveless. He had Fukurou's mask and his visor kept his eyes free of any obstruction. It was clear, so it was often hard to tell that he was wearing one.

His shoes, which were a pair of loose sneakers, became running shoes built for parkour. All in all he looked like a very speed-oriented ninja with wings to keep his balance.

"**I still say this feels weird,"**said Dark.

He went by the Dark Owl when he was stuck like this for two weeks. It was the best he could come up with because he had been eight at the time.

He found it odd that no one had recognized him when he was Dark. Still, he wasn't complaining about that, since he tried to avoid merging with Fukurou to avoid a repeat of the not-so-fun grounding he had gotten.

Fox was playfully running around looking for something, her tail swishing this way and that as she examined the codes.

"**Not here either..."**

"**What are you looking for?"**

"**The location of Nevermore. Huh?!"** said Fox, turning around once she realized he was in there with her.

Her eyes doubled in shock.

"**NO WAY! You're like me?!"**

Dark blinked.

"**Like... You're magical too?!"** said Dark in shock.

Suddenly a lot of things made sense. Certain people had an affinity towards technomancy...and they could merge without a special Navi.

Fox looked closely at Dark, before she realized something.

"**I take that back. You must be an idiot to do a biomerge without a safety switch to insure you can separate later!" **she said.

Dark felt like hitting himself. He didn't know that he _could_ add a safety switch!

"**Just stay out of my way rookie. I'll find this Nevermore place and then we'll see who's too muggle for their precious school!"** said Fox irritably.

Dark pinched the bridge of his nose. Suddenly a lot of things made sense.

Fox was a girl who had been snubbed or kicked out of Hogwarts because she was more of a technomancer than a traditional witch, and before he came along there wasn't even a dial-up connection. Clearly she had heard about the upgrade and felt a little payback was in order.

And he would bet credits to galleons that Snape had been the one to see if she was worthy of coming to the school.

"**How old are you anyway?"**

"**Thirteen, not that it's any of your business. A true gentleman never asks a lady her age,"** she said primly.

"**Then are you aware that Nevermore is a closed-circuit server?"** said Dark dryly.

Ether was no fool. It was irritating getting viruses on his Scilab server...he wasn't dealing with a mutating algorithm while he was busy trying to bring these people into the current century.

He had closed the server from the inside, and only he could open it up. The students had to go to specially designed modems which went into the wireless routers just to get any internet.

Once they were more like America, who at least kept up with the current trends without any prompting, Ether would let them have their servers.

The teachers were just glad he had an automatic lock out and made a list of any offenders who tried to hack into the outside servers.

Well, almost all the offenders.

If they were good enough to erase their tracks, then Ether tended to recruit them once summer hit. He wasn't going to rat out a fellow hacker. Especially if they were good enough to cover up their tracks that well.

Fox looked everywhere and found nothing...except the location of the Gringotts Server. She clapped her hands in delight.

Crashing Hogwarts was her original goal (one she had tricked a half-blood into paying for her to do) but robbing Gringotts from afar was just as well.

Suddenly she ducked. Dark had just shot at her!

"**You're not leaving here with that information,"** he said.

Fox smirked.

"**So that's the game you want to play? Fine,"** she replied, drawing her sword. Dark grabbed his sword.

"**Let's dance,"** he said with a rather cheerful smirk.

* * *

><p>Chaud was pissed. The break in had originate from Ether's private lab and he knew the boy wasn't behind it because he wasn't answering. Finally Hermione had enough, and she drew her wand. Fortunately Chaud was the only one there and the cameras to the room were disabled in the lock down.<p>

"Oh move over! _Alohamora!_" said Hermione with as much bossy force as she could put into the spell.

The door groaned in protest, but it wasn't any match for magic.

Ether had made sure that in the event someone had locked him in, the door wouldn't stand up to magic. A safety measure.

Chaud and Hermione went into the room and found...

"Oh for the love of Magic. Was he in here playing video games with his Navi the entire time?!" she said face palming.

"Not video games. That's the Ephemeral Fox, one of the most notorious hackers and thief on the Net. I should have known she was behind this when we found out the source of the break in... But right now I'm more worried about Ether and Fukurou. Last time he looked like that, it took him two weeks to separate."

"That's Ether?!"

"That's the Dark Owl, Codename Dark for short. People who specialize in technomancy, or magic that works _with_ technology, can merge with their Navis. However only people with Specials can fully merge and use this power to it's full potential."

"Specials?"

"Navis like Megaman and Fukurou."

Hermione looked at the screen, and scowled at the big-chested Navi fighting the rather roguish Dark.

He was having way, way too much fun fighting that girl.

"ETHER! GET OFF YOUR ARSE AND FINISH HER ALREADY!"

Dark flinched, before Fox took that chance to jump back. She winked at him flirtatiously before she did something unexpected.

She yanked off her necklace.

The Ephemeral Fox had escaped.


End file.
